Will ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ be released in theaters? For the past month spectators and exhibitors have been holding their breath awaiting a decision from Disney. We explain to you.
In project since 2018, the sequel to the film Black Panther almost did not see the light of day after the death of its main comedian Chadwick Boseman in August 2020. But producer Kevin Feige and director Ryan Coogler finally decided to continue the saga in honoring the actor and choosing not to recast his role.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters November 9, 2022. This final tribute to Chadwick Boseman is highly anticipated by MCU fans and theater operators alike. It must be said that the first opus had attracted 3.7 million spectators in France and garnered 1.3 billion dollars worldwide.
But last September, during the general assembly of the French Syndicate of Cinematographic Theaters, Disney announced the possibility of releasing Black Panther 2 directly on its Disney+ streaming platform in France.
The reason is simple: to avoid the constraints of the media chronology and to promote the development of its Disney+ platform.
If this case happened, the feature film worn by Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Letitia Wright would therefore be released on the streaming platform all over the world, and therefore in France, on December 26. That is 45 days after the beginning of the exploitation of the film in the American rooms.
What is the media chronology?
Already reviewed in January 2022, the media chronology aims to protect the various players in audiovisual production in France. Thus, when a film is released, cinemas have an exclusivity period of 4 months, reduced to 3 months if the film has registered less than 100,000 admissions in 4 weeks.
At the end of this window opens that of the video on demand to the act (VOD) and the physical edition (DVD and Blu-ray). Canal+ and OCS can broadcast the film after 6 months in exchange for significant investment in the French cinema economy, Netflix after 15 months, while the Prime Vidéo and Disney+ platforms can only broadcast the films after 17 months.
Christmas Disney already deprived of rooms in France
Last June, the American giant had therefore announced that the animated film Avalonia, the strange journey, planned to be the Disney Christmas, would not be released in French cinemas.
Hélène Etzi, the president of Disney France, specified in the columns of Echoes that removing Avalonia from the theatrical release schedule was “the consequence of media chronology as practiced in France“. The latter added that the studio was judging her “unfair, restrictive and unsuited to the expectations of [leurs] hearings“.
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Exploitation in turmoil
On September 20, during the Deauville CongressRichard Patry, the president of the FNCF, expressed his concern: “It is urgent to come together so that French viewers are not deprived of certain films and that cinemas are not the collateral victims of a situation in which our room for maneuver is very limited..”
The National Film and Moving Image Center (CNC) therefore convened the Audiovisual sector last Tuesday, October 4 for a meeting on the chronology of the media. Although the discussion laid the foundations for a constructive dialogue, no decision was taken.
A next meeting is supposed to be organized at the end of November, after the still theoretical release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters. To date, Disney has still not made a decision.