19/11/2003

A year ago, the production and distribution company Bac Films, was on the verge of bankruptcy. The firm, which is 10th in the French distributors listings for 2003, will be publishing its restructuring plans next week. It’s a decisive date as the official receiver has to report to the courts if the business can continue its shakeup or if it has to be put into liquidation. This dramatic situation isn’t helped by a debt of €30 million, a drop of 28.6% in earnings in the first nine months of 2003, and the announcement (on November 17) of the departure of the director general of the Bac Majestic Group, Alain Mamou-Mani.

So how did Jean Labadie’s company find itself in this position? The analysts believe that one of the causes of the crisis was the end of its association with Canal+ and break with the subsidiary Bac Distribution (80% owned by StudioCanal, 20% by Bac Majestic), which led to the start of inflation in the cost of films rights. While the number one independent distributor in the country launched into a wide diversification of its business (production, running cinemas etc), Bac Majestic was already started to see a haemorrhage of earnings (in the spring of 2002), and it failed to deliver the expected figures for September 2002. These difficulties worsened when StudioCanal started distancing itself, with the decision just to take on Mars Distribution leaving Bac Distribution to Bac Films. This separation left Bac in debt to Canal + by €12 million and in the spring of 2003 the encrypted TV channel gave Bac an advance of €5 million, in exchange for a break in the connections between the two groups.

According to the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, there are no possible buyers on the scene, in spite of the Bac’s efforts to improve the financial situation (including giving up its cinema operations). And this is even though the company has a catalogue of more than 200 recent films ( The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Life is Beautiful). If Bac does cease trading many French professionals are interested in the rights for these films. Those who may be involved include Jacques Ouaniche (Noé Productions), Millimages and Exception.
Since January 2003, Bac has distributed 29 films in cinemas, gaining a total audience of 5.4 million and the company is planning to release around 20 films in the first half of 2004. The releases that may be now under threat include films like The soul of a man by Wim Wenders (January 14) and Feux Rouges by Cédric Khan (January 21).

(Translated from French)