Relief for cinemas. Wakanda ForeverFollowing Black Panther, the adventures of Marvel’s black superhero, will be released in French cinemas on Wednesday 9 November. Disney, which produces the film, confirmed it on Monday October 17 after having (a long time) left room for doubt. At first, the company threatened to release this blockbuster directly on its Disney+ streaming platform. Franceinfo explains why Wakanda Forever was at the center of a fight over media chronology between exhibitors and the American company, against the backdrop of the difficult context for cinemas.
Governments have clearly recognized the need to modernize the #timelineDesMedia & a precise timetable has been agreed to discuss it, @WaltDisneyCo has therefore decided to confirm the theatrical release, to #BlackPantherWakandaForever @MarvelStudios next November 9. pic.twitter.com/eotTcTc01i
— Helene Etzi (@HeleneEtzi) October 17, 2022
What is the purpose of this threat?
In September, theDuring the general meeting of the French Syndicate of Cinematographic Theaters, Disney had expressed the possibility of releasing Wakanda Forever directly on Disney+ in France. By preferring its streaming platform to dark rooms, the firm with big ears hoped to boost its subscriptions with a blockbuster, eagerly awaited by fans.
The first part of the adventures of Black Panther had indeed attracted 3.8 million spectators in France and garnered 1.3 billion dollars in revenue worldwide. But Disney’s goal was also to bypass media timeline.
What is the media chronology?
The media timeline is a regulations which protects cinemas, channels and broadcasters who finance creation, by regulating the release of films on the internet, in commerce or on television. Currently, when a film is released, cinemas have an exclusivity of 4 months, reduced to 3 months if the film has registered less than 100,000 admissions in 4 weeks. Then the window opens pay-per-view video on demand (VOD) and physical publishing (DVD and Blu-ray).
After six months, OCS and Canal+, major financial partners of cinema in France, can broadcast the film. Netflix, which also contributes to French creation, is likely to add feature films to its catalog 15 months after their cinema release. Disney and Amazon have to wait 17 months. Finally, at the end of the chain, a film can be broadcast on the classic free channels (TF1, France 2, M6, etc.) 22 months after its theatrical release.
What does Disney blame for this system?
The media timeline was already reviewed in January 2022 and reduced the timeframe for Disney puts its productions online on its platform. But neither Disney nor Amazon signed this agreement. And ten months later, the Hollywood giant is already pushing to revise these rules. In his sights: the obligation to withdraw his films from the platform when they pass on the free channels, after 22 months. These channels then have a broadcast exclusivity that lasts up to 36 months after the release of the film, recalls LeBlogdumodacteur.
In comparison, in the United States, AMC, number one in cinemas, and Universal Studios signed an agreement in July 2020 reducing to 17 days the time between the release of films in theaters and their releases on DVD and video on demand. . Warner signed an agreement with AMC in August 2021 reducing exclusivity for these cinemas to 45 days, before making these films available on the HBO Max streaming platform, reports Allociné.
In the negotiations, opened at the beginning of October under the aegis of the National Center for Cinematography (CNC), the firm with the big ears therefore has a dreaded weapon: the threat of no longer releasing certain films in theaters, even if it means depriving itself of related revenue.
“The media timeline compels us to assess our theatrical releases film by film.”
Disney in Septemberin the magazine “Le Film français”
An outing on Disney+ “would have been a real handicap for our cinemas”said the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak. “Let’s not forget that these American films finance French cinema” via the ticket tax, she recalled in October.
Why is the topic likely to come back?
If the theatrical release Wakanda Forever is a victory for the cinemas in this fight which opposes them to Disney, the firm has not said its last word. The media timeline “needs to be completely overhauled”, persists the multinational in a statement sent to AFP. She promises to contribute “in a constructive way to the reflections and debates in order to define from February 2023 a new fair, flexible and incentive framework for the release of films in cinemas”. However, it continues to threaten: “In the meantime, we will continue to decide on a case-by-case release strategy for our films.”
Thus, if Avatar, the Waterwaythe continuation of the cardboard Avatarwill be released on screens on December 14, the traditional Disney Christmas, Avalonia, the strange journey, will be available on Disney+. A mode of operation that inevitably makes people cringe in the sector. “We do not want the platforms to put pressure, like Disney at the moment, to renegotiate this chronology which gives fair operating corridors, according to everyone’s obligations”assures producer Elisabeth Perez to franceinfo.
“It is not by further reducing the time between the theatrical release and the broadcast on television and/or on the platforms that we will bring people back to the theaters, quite the contrary.”
Elisabeth Perez, producerat franceinfo
Negotiations between the various players therefore promise to be complicated. And the position of the public authorities will be scrutinized closely. “These blockbusters, which bring a lot of people to our cinemas, we need them”assured the Minister Rima Abdul-Malak. But, according to her, “the media timeline cannot be a frozen block of marble”. The launch of discussions has, however, allowed, according to her, “to reassure Disney on a desire for evolution” and of “stop this blackmail on the release of certain films in theaters”.