Unlimited cinema for all
Last 18 March, France’s National Film Centre (CNC) presented a draft agreement about the “unlimited access cinema card” created by UGC and the cinema circuit that comes under the EuroPalaces umbrella: Pathe and Gaumont and MK2.
This move puts an end to the legislative void that followed the setting up of the so-called UGC Illimité on 29 March 2000, when the French minister for culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon issued a decree on 14 November 2002 setting up a Commission charged with formulating a proper agreement that satisfied all parties. After consulting the representatives of all those concerned, the Commission gave its approval to the draft agreement, and underlined a number of clauses that were put to those exhibitors who wanted to board one or more of the cards and were not totally satisfied. ARP wasted no time in responding with a press release issued on 20 March in which they expressed their surprise that “no discussion between the distributors’ and producers’ organisations and the companies supplying the cards as to their price.” ARP added that the policy of “obstructing the companies supplying these cards will in all likelihood succeed but the first victims will be filmgoers because they will no longer have the freedom to choose either the film or the cinema they attend.”
At present the EuroPalace group leads the French theatrical exhibition market with around 25 per cent of the 2001 box office and an unlimited access card called Le Pass which involves 37 Parisian and a good number of regional cinemas.
UGC is second with 18 per cent of the exhibition market and 51 cinemas subscribing to the UCG Illimité card.
(Translated from French)
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