The founders’ business skills, however, have not always matched their creative talents. The failure of an expansion into couture and video distribution led to a financial crisis in 2009. The company avoided bankruptcy with a painful debt and asset restructuring. Under that deal, Weinstein was able to retire its debt in exchange for giving a stake in 200 films to Goldman Sachs and Assured Guaranty Ltd., which were debt holders. Goldman’s interests in those films were later acquired by AMC Networks, which is controlled by the Dolan family and its Cablevision company. (James Dolan, a friend and adviser to Harvey Weinstein, recently joined the Weinstein board.)

While Weinstein appears to have recovered — people associated with the company, which is private, say it has more than $500 million in annual revenue and is modestly profitable — it has not quite put 2009 behind it. A video distributor that Weinstein picked up a controlling interest in during its expansionary days — and then jettisoned — is suing the company. The trustee for the distributor, Genius Products, claims Weinstein imposed onerous contracts that ultimately led Genius to file for bankruptcy. The suit seeks part of $130 million in what it claims were improper transfers.

Weinstein has strongly disputed the claim, but while other complaints against the company have been dismissed, this one is still pending.

Weinstein has enough money from cash flow and $500 million in credit from a consortium of 12 banks, led by Union Bank, to finance films. That credit line remains in place for about three more years, said Anthony Beaudoin, a managing director for entertainment finance at Union Bank. In the meantime Weinstein, a boutique studio, is getting even smaller. About 50 of roughly 250 jobs, many on the feature film side, are being cut. The company is also trimming its release schedule, to about 10 films a year from nearly double that level recently.

But trimming will not solve the big issue of finding a transaction or corporate transformation to reward investors whose cash has been tied up for a decade.

“The shareholders want a monetary event right now,” said Harvey, who, with his brother, is working with the Allen & Company investment banking firm to come up with a solution. Queries to the board members Tarak Ben Ammar, who is associated with TF1; Lance Maerov, who represents WPP; and Tim Sarnoff, of Technicolor, drew no response. (Mr. Weinstein later said the board had decided its members should not speak publicly.)