Another one bites the dust.

Miramax Films and Alliance Films have not renewed their output deal following its expiration on Dec. 31. Although no formal announcement has been made — the deal had been continuing on a film-by-film basis in 2008 — the New York-based distributor made its first public move by self-releasing Smart People on Friday in Canada.

Alliance chairman Victor Loewy downplays the impact of the end of an affair that dates back to 1994, telling Playback Daily that the deal had been of declining importance for the company since 2005, when Walt Disney Studios bought out the shares controlled by Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who went on to launch The Weinstein Company.

‘We couldn’t give them the fees they were asking for,’ says Loewy of the decision. ‘We have a very big structure. We have distribution in Quebec…We’re not a cut-rate distributor. We distribute full service and we deliver full grosses, and we couldn’t give them the percentages they wanted, so they decided to look somewhere else.’

He says Alliance declined to renew in part because of the reduced volume of Miramax titles — ‘only three or four films a year’ — and the underperformance of those titles it released in Canada.

Asked to name some of those titles, Loewy replies, ‘Everything with the exception of No Country for Old Men.’ Other recent Miramax product distributed by Alliance includes The Hoax, Becoming Jane and Gone Baby Gone.

Speculation is rife that Maple Pictures is negotiating for the Miramax deal. A Miramax spokesperson declined to comment on a possible Maple deal, but did not rule out signing a new distribution arrangement with a Canadian distributor. Alliance continues to have an output deal with The Weinstein Company.

Speaking on that possibility, Loewy says, ‘If [Miramax] go to Maple, Maple doesn’t have an operation in Quebec, so they will have to sub-distribute.’ In May, Maple and Seville Pictures signed a deal for distribution of Maple’s new releases and catalogue films in Quebec.

Miramax was able to self-release Smart People because it is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios. In 1988, legislation was introduced that would have barred foreign distributors from releasing third-party acquisitions. However, following intervention by the MPAA, the major Hollywood studios were exempted. Although the legislation never passed into law, it remains government policy.