Cannes: Studiocanal, Impuls Pictures Announce Output Deal
CANNES –Adding another building block to the most powerful indie distribution structure in the world, Euro film-TV group Studiocanal has signed an output deal for Switzerland with indie film distributor Impuls Pictures on all Studiocanal international productions.
The news comes as the Weinstein Company U.S. pickup “Macbeth,” co-financed, distributed and sold by Studiocanal world premiered at Cannes to impressive reviews, and the Studiocanal-sold “Early Man” and competition player “Mon roi” have near sold out at Cannes.
The Studiocanal-Impuls pact takes in Studiocanal’s flagship titles at Cannes such as Aardman’s Nick Park-directed “Early Man,” unveiled just before the market, Stephen Frears’ “The Program” (pictured) with Ben Foster, “We Are Your Friends,” nWave’s “Robinsoe Crusoe,” the latest Ben Stassen 3D movie, and the “Untitled Donald Crowhurst Project,” from James Marsh, starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz.
Studiocanal’s Marsh and Pierre Mazars, VP of international sales, negotiated the deal with Impuls Pictures CEOs Peter and Patrick Schaumlechner, as well as Daniel Guckau.
Buying up top indie distributors, Studiocanal now runs direct distribution operations in four of the top ten distribution markets in the world: the U.K., France, Germany and Australia. It direct distributes in New Zealand and last September inked with Svensk Filmindustri for a production-distribution alliance for Scandinavia, including an ouput deal.
Impuls has already bought many recent top titles from Studiocanal, such as Liam Neeson-starrer “Non Stop,” “House of Magic” and “Shaun the Sheep,” Studiocanal intl. sales head Anna Marsh pointed out.
With a strong line in family entertainment – other recent buys include “The Little Prince” from Wild Bunch, for example – Impuls has now ensured a continued supply of family fare from Studiocanal, Europe’s top purveyor.
Switzerland has only 8.0 million inhabitants but punches way above its weight in film terms. On French-language films, revenues to sales agents are on a rough par with Italy and Spain.
Impuls is also Switzerand’s top DVD distributor. Establishing a stable relationship will also allow co-ordination of not only theatrical but DVD and VOD releases with Germany, which boasts Europe’s robust physical DVD market.
“Being not only a sales company but also the very best in production and distribution in their major territories, they understand our needs,” said Peter Schaumlechner.
Patrick Schaumlechner added: “the output deal would provide a constant pipeline of some of the most commercial and outstanding films in the world.”
“With films such as ‘Non Stop,’ ‘Paddington,’ and ‘Macbeth,’ our production slate has been growing significantly in the last years and will continue to grow,” added Rodolphe Buet, at Studiocanal.
“This output deal will increase the level of synergies between Switzerland, France and Germany where Impuls have been a long-term partner for the entire home entertainment business and for extremely successful films such as ‘The Hunger Games’ franchise.”
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