If Movies Were Candidates: Weinstein Tells Maddow That Obama is 'King's Speech,' Romney 'Our Idiot Brother'
"With all due respect to Gov. Romney, he's not capable to run the United States," the Oscar-winner tells the MSNBC host.
Harvey Weinstein might seem like the movie producer equivalent of a proud parent -- but The Weinstein Co. co-chairman and top Democratic fundraiser does not love all his movies equally, it turns out. If his movies were candidates, the president would be The King's Speech. And Mitt Romney? Our Idiot Brother.
Appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show yesterday to speak about the growing gap in fundraising for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns -- Republican Super PACS are outgrossing their Democratic rivals by a margin of 3-to-1 -- Weinstein uses a movie business metaphor to explain why the numbers don't concern him.
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"I'll give you an example of two movies that I distribute," Weinstein tells Maddow. "I spent the exact same amount on both movies. One movie was called The King's Speech. It grossed $140 million, won a few Oscars including best picture, and did sensational based on its budget."
"The other picture was called Our Idiot Brother," Weinstein continues. "And we spent the same exact amount of money on it and it grossed $25 million."
"To me," Weinstein concludes, "Romney is Our Idiot Brother, and Obama is The King's Speech. You can spend all the money in the world. If you've got a bad product, it doesnt matter."
"I think everybody's sitting back and saying, 'Why spend money if we don't have to. If we have to, we will,'" Weinstein says, with typical bravado.
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Weinstein also says he suspects big-ticket Republican donors are expecting something back in return: "The way they write these checks is wish fulfillment that their candidate will win, and then they'll get a tax cut," he explains. "It's the same ridiculous thing. They spend $300 million and expect that on their multi-billion-dollar companies, they'll get $400 million back."
"With all due respect to Gov. Romney," Weinstein tells Maddow, "he's not capable to run the United States."
Watch Weinstein talk campaign fundraising with Maddow in the video below.
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