Feb. 14, 2023

"2023 will be the best year for cinema in Canal+ history"

Vivendi-owned media group Canal+ has unveiled plans to invest €1bn in cinema over the next five years. As part of its long-term commitment to the genre, the company also confirmed that it will be launching a new movie channel, Canal+ Box Office.

French pay-TV giant Canal+ went on the offensive at a special event in Paris promoting its historic role as the biggest supporter of local and international cinema in France and laying out its past track record and future plans.

The roadshow-style conference was part of an operation laying the ground for the launch of a new high-end, cinema-focused channel Canal+ Box Office which was teased at the end of the event.

“2023 will be the most beautiful year for cinema in the history of Canal+. We've never held an event like this before devoted only to cinema, but we felt the need to talk about this,” declared Canal+ Group Chairman and CEO Maxime Saada.

Saada's pledge to spend €1bn spend is in line with the group's previously announced plans to invest €200m per year in film, and includes €20-30 million in annual investment from OCS. In January, Canal+ finalised a deal to buy orange's film production arm Orange Studio and pay TV division OCS.

“I would be open to signing a €1bn deal with French cinema for the next five years,” Saada said, pointing out that the company is already investing upwards of €220-230 million a year which, multiplied by five, already extends past that sum. Saada added that, “Nothing has been signed to date, but there are active discussions. Our hand is outstretched.”

The exec said the banner year was due to three factors, topped by the agreement it signed with the French cinema guilds in early 2022, pledging to invest at least €200M ($213M) annually in cinema over five years.

The accord was forged within the context of France's overhaul of its strict windowing rules, or media chronology.

In return for its investment, the window between a film's theatrical release and its availability on Canal+ has been shortened to six months from nine months.

This compares with a 15-month window for Netflix, which has also pledged extra cinema investment, and 17 months for platforms like Disney and Amazon, which have not cut investment obligation deals.

Saada also highlighted the fact that “for the first time ever, there is one French platform that has content from all of the US majors” namely Sony, Paramount, Warner Bros., Universal and Disney. He also pointed to the company's prolific production and distribution arm Studio canal.

Among the top 100 films at the French box office, Canal+ has broadcast rights to 99 of them. Saada said that “we're trying to buy the 100th.”

“Our ties with cinema are what define the singularity of Canal+,” he said, pointing to both long-term relationships with veteran directors and producers and the fact that “we accompany up-and-coming talents from their short films to their features.”

2023 film slate

The group continues to invest in both local-language titles and ambitious international projects. Canal+'s head of film acquisitions Laurent Hassid said that there's not one recipe to make a good movie” and that the company works with filmmakers and producers from the early stages of production for projects that span all genres. “French film is both a popular art and an auteur cinema,” he said. Hassid said that Canal+ invested in around 120 projects in 2022, of which 33 of which were first features.

Among the films Canal+ has invested in for the year ahead are Frederic Tellier's Abbé Pierre, A Century Of Devotion about the famed French Catholic priest for SND that Hassid called “extremely ambitious” and “one our most anticipated titles.” He also cited Thomas Cailley's La Règne Animal and The Price of Money - a Largo Winch Adventure starring Tomer Sisley and James Franco.

Also, among buzzy Canal+-backed titles coming up are Michel Hazanavicius' animated The Most Precious of Cargos, Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez and Cedric Kahn's Making Of.

Long-time Studio canal head and newly appointed deputy CEO of Canal+ Group Anna Marsh highlighted the group's current local language hits such as Alibi.com 2 that just crossed the one million admissions mark in France. She said Studio canal wanted “to further develop franchises in both French and English.” Studio canal is behind notable international franchises such as Paddington and aims to intensify its strategy moving forward.

Canal+ France Managing Director Gérard-Brice Viret said the cinema remained at the heart of the pay-TV platform's offer, which counted 4,500 feature titles in total in its library.

“Cinema remains the top incentive for 70% of people who enquire about a subscription, followed closely by sport,” said Viret. “That wasn't the case a few years ago, but cinema has made a comeback.”

He cited the success of a number of films in recent months such as Top Gun: Maverick, which drew three million viewers for its debut screening on Canal+ on December 22, before being made available on its subscriber channels and via VoD.

Viret added that 50 films had drawn more than a million viewers in 2022 across all forms of exploitation on Canal+, against 25 in 2021. Saada and Viret also emphasized Canal+s historic relationship with French cinema, which spanned supporting popular artists, established auteurs and emerging talents.

They cited a handful of the 100 local films that will be made available to subscribers this year including The Night Of The 12th, Simone, A Woman Of A Century, and Masquerade as well as hits Alibi.com 2 and Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.

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