Cataclysm in the film industry: Seville Films, one of the largest distributors in Quebec, ceases its activities. A closure that raises a number of questions, particularly regarding the future of the company’s rich catalog.
Seville Films is, among other things, the distributor of several major blockbusters, such as Good Cop, Bad Cop, Starbucks or 1991. The company also owns the rights to part of the filmography of renowned filmmakers, such as Xavier Dolan and Denys Arcand.
The company, owned by Toronto-based Entertainment One, was also to distribute the comedy vanishing lines, which premieres next week.
“We are told that the film was still going to be able to be shown. We should have news today to find out how it will work. Without a distributor, I don’t know who the money will go to,” commented the general manager of Cinéma Beaubien, Mario Fortin, who had been aware of the difficulties of Seville Films even before the pandemic came to undermine the company. ‘industry.
Other releases were also planned for later in the year, and venue owners are also asking for clarification.
Several questions therefore remain unanswered since the leaders of the box announced Tuesday by email to their partners the end of their activities in Quebec, causing the dismissal of most of the employees of their Montreal office, on rue Saint-Antoine.
In 2012 Seville Films swallowed up one of its main competitors, Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm, to form a distribution giant within Entertainment One. In 2019, the Toronto company was in turn bought out by the Americans of Hasbro.
“We don’t leave national distribution in the hands of foreign interests. Seville was almost in a monopoly situation, and the institutions let it happen. What is happening today was unfortunately predictable,” regrets independent distributor Louis Dussault, who expects the loss of this player to have consequences for the financing of big-budget Quebec films.