StudioCanal

Background

The company was founded in 1987 by Pierre Lescure as a spin-off of the Canal+ pay-TV network. The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was known as Le Studio Canal+.

It has strong links to Universal Studios (StudioCanal and Universal Studios were owned by the same company between 2000 and 2004, hence StudioCanal co-produced a fair number of Universal's films).

Other films the company financed include U-571, Bully, and Bridget Jones's Diary. StudioCanal also funded the last third of David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive. StudioCanal also financed French-language films, such as Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States in the last two decades) and Intimate Strangers (which is being remade by Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures). The biggest box office hits for StudioCanal have been Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed US$519 million, Basic Instinct which grossed US$352 million and The Tourist which grossed US$278 million worldwide.

Film library

StudioCanal acquired film libraries from studios that either went defunct or had merged with it over the years. As a result, the company's library is the third-largest in the world, behind Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer respectively.

StudioCanal's library includes the film libraries of:

Acquisitions

StudioCanal acquired British-Irish distributor Optimum Releasing in 2006 as their first expansion into an international market. 2 years later, their second expansion into an international market took place with StudioCanal's acquisition of German distributor Kinowelt who had distributed their films up to that point. Both companies have since then been renamed StudioCanal. StudioCanal's acquisition of Australian-New Zealand distributor Hoyts Distribution took place in 2012-and was StudioCanal's third expansion into an international market.

In June 2016, StudioCanal acquired the intellectual rights to the Paddington Bear brand, along with the Copyrights Group, the franchise's merchandise licensing agent. StudioCanal then announced that it would be producing three more Paddington films.

Distributors

Outside France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and German-speaking countries, StudioCanal does not have a formal distribution unit per se, instead relying on other distribution studios and home video distributors to handle their titles, in North America for example, The Criterion Collection, Rialto Pictures, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, Image Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Universal Pictures, distribute StudioCanal's back catalogue on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (in addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment used to previously handle several of their titles). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment handles distribution of StudioCanal/Hoyts Distribution films in Australia and New Zealand on DVD and Blu-ray.

StudioCanal also handles home video distribution of 550 titles from the Miramax library internationally (Lionsgate handles American distribution and Entertainment One handles Canadian distribution) since February 2011.