The American cinema giant Disney has decided to deprive French theaters of its next animated film, Strange World, to broadcast this blockbuster directly on its online platform at the end of 2022, he said on Wednesday. Disney thus confirmed to AFP information given to the specialized American website Deadline and to the French economic daily Les Échos. “It is the consequence of the ‘media chronology’ as practiced in France that we consider unfair, restrictive and unsuited to the expectations of our audiences”, declared to Echoes the president France of Disney, Hélène Etzi. The decision will only apply in France. The media timeline governs the dates on which films can be released, including streaming and television, in the months following their cinema release. According to the new agreement reached at the end of January, platforms that have not signed this agreement, including Disney +, must wait seventeen months before being able to broadcast their films after their cinema release. They pass all the same in front of the free television channels, the latter always broadcasting the films twenty-two months after the theatrical release. This device aims to protect the cinemas, by giving them the scoop, but also the and broadcasters who finance the cinema. France is thus seeking to preserve the diversity of its film production, to which the various governments have remained attentive. A “terribly unfair” decision In a statement sent to AFP, the general delegate of the National Federation of French Cinemas, Marc- Olivier Sebbag, denounces a “totally unacceptable decision”, “terribly unfair” and asks Disney to reconsider this choice. He calls on the public authorities to allow “a rapid resolution of this major problem for (the) sector”. In other countries, films can generally be broadcast on platforms a month and a half after their theatrical release. The American entertainment giant is also complaining of an exclusivity window of only “five months” before seeing its film switch to free channels. For now, only Strange World is concerned, Ms. Etzi told Les Échos. On the other hand, nothing has been decided at this stage for Black Panther 2 or the new Avatar, two large productions on which cinemas are counting to improve the attendance figures at half mast. “We continue to assess the situation film by film and country by country”, commented the president France of Disney.
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