Louise Bernard, with Alexis Patri
Our colleagues from the newspaper “Les Echos” reveal that Disney will deprive cinemas of its next film, the animated feature film “Strange World”, to put it online directly on its Disney + streaming platform. With this film release, the company wants to put pressure on French legislation.
It is a French exception that does not only make people happy in the world of media and culture. The next Disney movie, Strange Worldwill be released directly on the Disney+ platform, without going through the cinema box, as revealed by our colleagues from the newspaper The echoes. It is the only country where this will be the case. The animated film is scheduled for the Christmas period, which is very conducive to making many cinema admissions. Disney, in this way, intends to lobby and protest against the media chronology, the regulations that decide when films can be shown after their theatrical release.
In France, Disney does not have the right to release its film in the cinema and at the same time on its streaming platform. You have to wait 17 months. We are the strictest country on this subject. Another French rule: the film cannot be available on the platform when it is broadcast unencrypted on television. It must be removed temporarily. A media timeline that Disney deems “unfair, restrictive and unsuited to the expectations of [leurs] hearings”, according to The echoes.
A decision to reproduce?
This decision is a blow for cinemas. In 2019, before the pandemic, more than a quarter of tickets sold in France were for Disney productions, 57 million annual admissions in total. It is also a blow for French cinema, which is financed indirectly by the sale of tickets.
What about the following films? Disney will study the situations “film by film, country by country”, according to the president Disney France, Hélène Etzi. Not sure that Disney will assume to do without French cinemas for a film like Avatar 2, which is due out in December 2022 and promises huge success. The first part, released in 2009, achieved nearly 15 million admissions in France. However, Disney touches much more money with the cinema than with its platform.