This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Needs more information on the history page.(March 2024) |
Formerly | Canal+ Production (1984–1990) Le Studio Canal+ (1990–2000) Canal+ D.A. (1992–2000) |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry |
Filmmaking Film distribution |
Predecessors |
|
Founded | September 7, 1984 |
Founder | Pierre Lescure |
Headquarters | |
Area served | Afro-Eurasia Oceania |
Key people | Maxime Saada (
Chairman) Anna Marsh ( CEO) |
Owner | Vivendi |
Parent | Canal+ Group |
Divisions |
|
Subsidiaries |
|
Website |
www |
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production, and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world. The company is a unit of the Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi.
The company was founded on September 7 1984 by Pierre Lescure as Canal+ Productions as a cinema subsidiary of the cable channel Canal+ just only two months before the November launch of the forth television channel and pay-TV network named Canal+.
By December 1990, Canal+ Productions rebranded and renamed into Le Studio Canal+ under the leadership of the pay-TV channel's cinematic director René Bonnell and André Rousselet the company's former president and co-founder of Canal+.
The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies, such as Carolco Pictures. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was known as either Le Studio Canal+ or simply Canal+.
Other films the company financed include U-571, Bully, and Bridget Jones's Diary. StudioCanal also funded the last third of David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive. [1] StudioCanal also financed French-language films, such as Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the sixth-highest-grossing French-language film of all time in the United States) and Intimate Strangers. The biggest box office hits for StudioCanal have been Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed US$519 million, Basic Instinct which grossed US$352 million and The Tourist which grossed US$278 million worldwide. [2] [3] [4]
StudioCanal's original plan was to build up a pan-European distribution network. They made their first known acquisition into a foreign market in 1997 when they bought a 20% minority stake in Germany's Tobis Film; they would later increase the stake to 60% in February 2000, renaming the company Tobis StudioCanal. [5] In July 2001, StudioCanal acquired a 45% stake in the Sogepaq division of Spain's Sogecable (Vivendi Universal owned 21% of Sogecable at the time) for $36.2 million, also giving the company a 73% controlling stake in its Spanish subsidiary StudioCanal España and a minority stake in the joint venture Warner Sogefilms. [6] [7] [8] In October 2002, StudioCanal and BAC Majestic parted ways; the terms of the deal included the sale of Mars Distribution to StudioCanal, giving StudioCanal a film distribution arm in their homeland of France; the joint venture BAC Distribution, majority owned by StudioCanal, would shut down and revert to BAC Majestic (which at the time was suffering from financial issues). [9]
However, staff departures and its parent Vivendi Universal's debt forced StudioCanal to gradually sell off their interests in these companies:
After three years, StudioCanal had re-entered the international market by acquiring British-based film distributor Optimum Releasing in May 2006 as their first expansion into the United Kingdom thrust entering the British film industry and began releasing their catalogue including the EMI Films library through the acquired British film distribution company. [15] A year later in 2007, Optimum Home Entertainment and Lionsgate UK acquired Elevation Sales, a home entertainment sales and distribution company. [16] [17] Two years later on January 2008 after acquiring Optimum Releasing, StudioCanal entered their second expansion into the international market with the acquisition of German-based film independent distributor Kinowelt, which was founded in 1986 in which the latter who had distributed StudioCanal's films up to that point thrust making its expansion into Germany and re-enterted the Germany film production and distrubtion market. [18] Kinowelt also owned the DVD label Arthaus. Both Optimum Relesing and Kinowelt have since been merged into StudioCanal and both were rebranded as StudioCanal UK and StudioCanal GmbH in those two markets. [19]
On January 10, 2012, StudioCanal expanded it's european business, upgrading its German operations and entered into the television business by acquiring the majority stake in Munich-based producer and distributor Tandem Communications, one of Germany's leading production companies in international TV shows like The Pillars of the Earth, marking the company's first major move into television production. [20] Eight years later on May 12 2020, after acquiring a majority stake back in the start of 2012, StudioCanal announced that they took full control of Tandem Communications by acquiring out the remaining minorty stake in the German-based company. [21]
On April 17 of that year, StudioCanal had annouched that they had entered its third expansion in the international market with the acquisition of the successful Australian and New Zealand independent film distributor Hoyts Distribution from The Hoyts Group, marking StudioCanal's expansion into the Australian distribution market and it was StudioCanal's third expansion thrust it was the first time StudioCanal entered its operations outside from Europe. The following year on April 3, 2013 it was announced that Hoyts Distribution was renamed StudioCanal Australia in that region. [22]
On December 5 2013, StudioCanal had announced that they acquired a majority stake in the British-based indie TV production company Red Production Company, marking StudioCanal's entry into the UK television drama production and expanding its international television business. It was also the first time that StudioCanal enterted the UK television industry. [23]
On September 2 2014, StudioCanal announced that they backed a first-look deal with the then-new American-based entertainment company The Picture Company founded by former Silver Pictures employees Andrew Rona and Alex Heinemann. Nine years later on May 22 2023, after its successful deal StudioCanal had announced that they had acquired a mintory stake in the company and established a new five-year deal with the company. [24]
In June 2016, StudioCanal acquired the intellectual rights to the Paddington Bear brand, along with the Copyrights Group, the franchise's merchandise licensing agent. StudioCanal then announced that it would be producing three more Paddington films, including a show on the Nick Jr. Channel in 2020. [25]
On July 7 2021, in order to grow its portfolio of production companies StudioCanal had announced that they have acquired Germany's production company Lailaps Films thrust extending StudioCanal's german operations in that country. [26]
On June 20 2022, StudioCanal announced that they had acquired a majority stake in Benelux-based film production and distribution firm Dutch FilmWorks, one of the Netherlands' biggest independent producers and distributors thust allowing StudioCanal to expand into the Benelux countries and growing its international business. [27]
On April 29, 2024, it was announced that StudioCanal had launched a new label dedicated to publishing book-to-screen adaptations called StudioCanal Stories, the new label will focus on adapting books into films and television series. [28]
StudioCanal acquired film libraries from studios that either became defunct or had merged with it over the years; as a result, the company's library is one of the largest in the world, with over 6,000 titles.
StudioCanal owns the libraries of the following companies:
StudioCanal currently owns the rights to over 30 television series, mostly produced by TANDEM Productions and Red Production Company, including The Avengers, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, Paranoid, Public Eye, Crazyhead, Take Two, Wanted Dead or Alive, The Adventures of Paddington (2019), and international rights to The Big Valley.
Outside France, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand and Germany, StudioCanal does not have a formal distribution unit per se, instead relying on other distribution studios and home video distributors to handle their titles. In North America for example, The Criterion Collection, Rialto Pictures, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (for the Embassy catalog), Universal Pictures (for co-productions), Shout! Studios and Kino Lorber distribute StudioCanal's back catalogue on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (in addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Image Entertainment previously owned several of their titles). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has handled distribution of StudioCanal/Hoyts Distribution films in Australia and New Zealand on DVD and Blu-ray since early 2013.
From the 1990s to early 2000s, Warner Home Video formerly handled distribution of select StudioCanal titles through the Canal+ Image label in the United Kingdom on VHS and DVD until 2006 when StudioCanal opened its own distribution unit in the UK, with titles distributed through Optimum Releasing (via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment from 2006 to 2007 and Elevation Sales since 2007). [43]
StudioCanal had the European home video distribution rights to 550 titles from the Miramax library from 2011 to 2020, [44] [45] when ViacomCBS bought a minority stake in Miramax.
On October 13, 2021, StudioCanal announced that its global distribution deal with Universal would expire in January 2022. Later that year, they started distributing their home media releases through Plaion Pictures in Germany. In early 2024, they started distributing their home media releases in France through ESC Distribution. [46]
This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: Needs more information on the history page.(March 2024) |
Formerly | Canal+ Production (1984–1990) Le Studio Canal+ (1990–2000) Canal+ D.A. (1992–2000) |
---|---|
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry |
Filmmaking Film distribution |
Predecessors |
|
Founded | September 7, 1984 |
Founder | Pierre Lescure |
Headquarters | |
Area served | Afro-Eurasia Oceania |
Key people | Maxime Saada (
Chairman) Anna Marsh ( CEO) |
Owner | Vivendi |
Parent | Canal+ Group |
Divisions |
|
Subsidiaries |
|
Website |
www |
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production, and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world. The company is a unit of the Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi.
The company was founded on September 7 1984 by Pierre Lescure as Canal+ Productions as a cinema subsidiary of the cable channel Canal+ just only two months before the November launch of the forth television channel and pay-TV network named Canal+.
By December 1990, Canal+ Productions rebranded and renamed into Le Studio Canal+ under the leadership of the pay-TV channel's cinematic director René Bonnell and André Rousselet the company's former president and co-founder of Canal+.
The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies, such as Carolco Pictures. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was known as either Le Studio Canal+ or simply Canal+.
Other films the company financed include U-571, Bully, and Bridget Jones's Diary. StudioCanal also funded the last third of David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive. [1] StudioCanal also financed French-language films, such as Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the sixth-highest-grossing French-language film of all time in the United States) and Intimate Strangers. The biggest box office hits for StudioCanal have been Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed US$519 million, Basic Instinct which grossed US$352 million and The Tourist which grossed US$278 million worldwide. [2] [3] [4]
StudioCanal's original plan was to build up a pan-European distribution network. They made their first known acquisition into a foreign market in 1997 when they bought a 20% minority stake in Germany's Tobis Film; they would later increase the stake to 60% in February 2000, renaming the company Tobis StudioCanal. [5] In July 2001, StudioCanal acquired a 45% stake in the Sogepaq division of Spain's Sogecable (Vivendi Universal owned 21% of Sogecable at the time) for $36.2 million, also giving the company a 73% controlling stake in its Spanish subsidiary StudioCanal España and a minority stake in the joint venture Warner Sogefilms. [6] [7] [8] In October 2002, StudioCanal and BAC Majestic parted ways; the terms of the deal included the sale of Mars Distribution to StudioCanal, giving StudioCanal a film distribution arm in their homeland of France; the joint venture BAC Distribution, majority owned by StudioCanal, would shut down and revert to BAC Majestic (which at the time was suffering from financial issues). [9]
However, staff departures and its parent Vivendi Universal's debt forced StudioCanal to gradually sell off their interests in these companies:
After three years, StudioCanal had re-entered the international market by acquiring British-based film distributor Optimum Releasing in May 2006 as their first expansion into the United Kingdom thrust entering the British film industry and began releasing their catalogue including the EMI Films library through the acquired British film distribution company. [15] A year later in 2007, Optimum Home Entertainment and Lionsgate UK acquired Elevation Sales, a home entertainment sales and distribution company. [16] [17] Two years later on January 2008 after acquiring Optimum Releasing, StudioCanal entered their second expansion into the international market with the acquisition of German-based film independent distributor Kinowelt, which was founded in 1986 in which the latter who had distributed StudioCanal's films up to that point thrust making its expansion into Germany and re-enterted the Germany film production and distrubtion market. [18] Kinowelt also owned the DVD label Arthaus. Both Optimum Relesing and Kinowelt have since been merged into StudioCanal and both were rebranded as StudioCanal UK and StudioCanal GmbH in those two markets. [19]
On January 10, 2012, StudioCanal expanded it's european business, upgrading its German operations and entered into the television business by acquiring the majority stake in Munich-based producer and distributor Tandem Communications, one of Germany's leading production companies in international TV shows like The Pillars of the Earth, marking the company's first major move into television production. [20] Eight years later on May 12 2020, after acquiring a majority stake back in the start of 2012, StudioCanal announced that they took full control of Tandem Communications by acquiring out the remaining minorty stake in the German-based company. [21]
On April 17 of that year, StudioCanal had annouched that they had entered its third expansion in the international market with the acquisition of the successful Australian and New Zealand independent film distributor Hoyts Distribution from The Hoyts Group, marking StudioCanal's expansion into the Australian distribution market and it was StudioCanal's third expansion thrust it was the first time StudioCanal entered its operations outside from Europe. The following year on April 3, 2013 it was announced that Hoyts Distribution was renamed StudioCanal Australia in that region. [22]
On December 5 2013, StudioCanal had announced that they acquired a majority stake in the British-based indie TV production company Red Production Company, marking StudioCanal's entry into the UK television drama production and expanding its international television business. It was also the first time that StudioCanal enterted the UK television industry. [23]
On September 2 2014, StudioCanal announced that they backed a first-look deal with the then-new American-based entertainment company The Picture Company founded by former Silver Pictures employees Andrew Rona and Alex Heinemann. Nine years later on May 22 2023, after its successful deal StudioCanal had announced that they had acquired a mintory stake in the company and established a new five-year deal with the company. [24]
In June 2016, StudioCanal acquired the intellectual rights to the Paddington Bear brand, along with the Copyrights Group, the franchise's merchandise licensing agent. StudioCanal then announced that it would be producing three more Paddington films, including a show on the Nick Jr. Channel in 2020. [25]
On July 7 2021, in order to grow its portfolio of production companies StudioCanal had announced that they have acquired Germany's production company Lailaps Films thrust extending StudioCanal's german operations in that country. [26]
On June 20 2022, StudioCanal announced that they had acquired a majority stake in Benelux-based film production and distribution firm Dutch FilmWorks, one of the Netherlands' biggest independent producers and distributors thust allowing StudioCanal to expand into the Benelux countries and growing its international business. [27]
On April 29, 2024, it was announced that StudioCanal had launched a new label dedicated to publishing book-to-screen adaptations called StudioCanal Stories, the new label will focus on adapting books into films and television series. [28]
StudioCanal acquired film libraries from studios that either became defunct or had merged with it over the years; as a result, the company's library is one of the largest in the world, with over 6,000 titles.
StudioCanal owns the libraries of the following companies:
StudioCanal currently owns the rights to over 30 television series, mostly produced by TANDEM Productions and Red Production Company, including The Avengers, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, Paranoid, Public Eye, Crazyhead, Take Two, Wanted Dead or Alive, The Adventures of Paddington (2019), and international rights to The Big Valley.
Outside France, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand and Germany, StudioCanal does not have a formal distribution unit per se, instead relying on other distribution studios and home video distributors to handle their titles. In North America for example, The Criterion Collection, Rialto Pictures, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (for the Embassy catalog), Universal Pictures (for co-productions), Shout! Studios and Kino Lorber distribute StudioCanal's back catalogue on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (in addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Image Entertainment previously owned several of their titles). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has handled distribution of StudioCanal/Hoyts Distribution films in Australia and New Zealand on DVD and Blu-ray since early 2013.
From the 1990s to early 2000s, Warner Home Video formerly handled distribution of select StudioCanal titles through the Canal+ Image label in the United Kingdom on VHS and DVD until 2006 when StudioCanal opened its own distribution unit in the UK, with titles distributed through Optimum Releasing (via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment from 2006 to 2007 and Elevation Sales since 2007). [43]
StudioCanal had the European home video distribution rights to 550 titles from the Miramax library from 2011 to 2020, [44] [45] when ViacomCBS bought a minority stake in Miramax.
On October 13, 2021, StudioCanal announced that its global distribution deal with Universal would expire in January 2022. Later that year, they started distributing their home media releases through Plaion Pictures in Germany. In early 2024, they started distributing their home media releases in France through ESC Distribution. [46]