Disney has finally agreed to sell Miramax studios to Filmyard for $660 million. Miramax is the studio behind such films as Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, and Shakespeare in Love. Miramax has continued to push out critically acclaimed films, however, Disney is clearly focusing their efforts on huge box office productions like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and the Pixar films.

“Although we are very proud of Miramax’s many accomplishments, our current strategy for Walt Disney Studios is to focus on the development of great motion pictures under the Disney, Pixar and Marvel brands,” Disney’s chief executive Robert Iger said.

All of these brands have a much great profit margin for Disney because of their marketability in terms of merchandise. Many films struggle to break even, so it is the merchandise that makes Disney their profit.

The sale includes rights to the Miramax back catalogue of nearly 700 films. In recent years Disney had scaled back the budget of Miramax to only 3 films a year. Bob and Harvey Weinstein who founded Miramax in 1978 were looking to buy back the studio, but their bid was unsuccessful.

This week has seen Disney make some bold moves, buying Playdom, the social gaming platform/developer.