Hasn't the Old Harvey Already Returned?

Fortune cites a box-office shortfall in the past year as part of what ails the Weinstein Co., and says that the next six months are critical to the company, which is in the market for a new CEO. After the Grindhouse debacle this past spring, the Weinstein Co. board of directors urged Harvey (who had been out to conquer worlds beyond film) to refocus on the core movie business. Now, months later, it seems that Harvey is back to his old tricks, tirelessly exploiting the controversy of his movies and banking on horror hits. Since Cannes, he's been relentless about keeping Michael Moore's documentary Sicko front and center with the media, even calling a press conference on June 11th where he took the US Treasury Department to task. And it's starting to show at the box office. According to Variety, Sicko looks pretty healthy heading into it's first it's first weekend of national release. It played one theater in New York last weekend and collected $70,000, selling out all its shows. And then there was the Stephen King-adapted 1408, which shocked with the $20.6 million that it earned in theaters last week. The board of directors may have stepped up its oversight of the company after a disappointing fiscal year, but in all fairness, it does seem that the non-smoking, thinner-from-cardio-boxing Harvey is back on track.