After announcing that it would deprive French cinemas of its next Christmas animated film, Avalonia, the strange journeythe Disney studio is now threatening to book the release of the highly anticipated Black Panther : Wakanda Forever to its streaming platform. If it seems unlikely at this stage that Disney will deprive itself of a theatrical release, the American major reiterates its position on the media chronology here.
For the past few days, rumors have been rife about a potential cancellation of the theatrical release – in France – of Black Panther : Wakanda Forever. At the origin of the fire, a statement from the American major Disney (owner of Marvel) in the professional magazine French Film : « the media chronology forces us to evaluate our theatrical releases film by film. [Nous n’avons] no decision on release yet [du film] in theaters for France”.
Last June, the big-eared firm had already announced that it was deprogramming the release of his next animated film, Avalonia, the strange journey, in order to keep up the pressure on the reform of the media chronology – to the chagrin of French cinemas. To date, Disney must wait seventeen months before being able to broadcast one of its theatrically released films on its platform.
The weight of Disney on French cinema
This intense lobbying by Disney against the media timeline, one of which new version had been negotiated last February – before being accepted by Netflix in a historic agreement with film professionalswhich Disney or Amazon have therefore not ratified – threatens cinema operators and French cinema in general more than ever, at a time when cinema attendance is down drastically by nearly 30% compared to 2019. In August alone, only 10.66 million admissions were recorded, the worst score for more than 20 years for this period and in sharp decline compared to August 2021, when the health pass was nevertheless in force.
Two years after the death of Chadwick Bosemanthe success of Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler) supposed to be released in cinemas on November 9, seems almost assured today. In 2018, the first Black Panther brought in no less than $1.3 billion at the global box office and 3.6 million admissions in France. It is thus difficult to believe that Disney will in fact deprive itself of such an exit.
Failing to contribute equitably to a global system protecting independent cinematographic creation and ensuring a great diversity of films, this new round of pressure would have ended up convincing the French government to negotiate with the American firm whose productions remain important locomotives at the box office. -office. The National Cinema Center (CNC) would have invited the various players in the profession to an imminent meeting. A case to follow very closely…