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EXHIBITORS France

New rules for multiplexes

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The French parliament gave the go-ahead to limit capacity in multiplex theatres to a maximum of 300 seats, this modifies the Law that was voted in on 3 April, and got the blessing of the culture minister, Jean-Jacques Aillagon.
Up until now the limit was 800 seats although this was not universally welcomed by France’s smaller exhibitors who felt they were being damaged by expansion of the bigger circuits (especially the Leclerc Group) that had not been authorized by official watchdog, CDEC.
This was a key issue at last September’s 57th French Cinema Federation and resulted in exhibitors presenting a united front that was backed by Jean-Jacques Aillagon’s disapproval of the advent of major distributors to the exhibition circuit.

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The solution to this problem include limiting the permission to build new multiplexes and thus maintain a balance with pre-existing cinemas and avoid an industry emergency caused by new operators who do not respect the rules. The fear is that cinema will lose its cultural value and become a mere commercial product.
The new law also introduced a series of more stringent controls : up until now, multiplexes were allowed – after five years of being operational- to increase their seating capacity to 1500 without requesting CDEC authorisation. This is no longer possible.

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(Translated from French)

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