Studiocanal GmbH

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STUDIOCANAL GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
Seat Berlin
management Karl-Helmut Friz, managing director
sales € 77 million (2012)
Branch Media economy
Website www.studiocanal.de

Former Kinowelt logo

The Studio Canal GmbH (proper spelling STUDIO CANAL ), based in Berlin , the German division of French media group of companies StudioCanal . The Berlin subsidiary is one of the largest rental companies for movies and a large provider of DVDs and BDs . The Studiocanal group, which is wholly owned by the French Groupe Canal + , also co- produces cinema films and is active in the trade in licenses for film and television rights.

Studiocanal GmbH , founded on September 1, 2011, is the successor to the former Kinowelt GmbH based in Leipzig , which was taken over in 2008 by Vivendi , the parent company of Canal +. The Kinowelt GmbH , in turn, was founded in the 1984 and dissolved in 2001 Kinowelt AG , based in Munich emerged.

Key figures

In 2006 the group, managed by the Kinowelt GmbH holding company , had 152 employees and achieved sales of 106.8 million euros. The market share of the rental business was 5.5 percent, while the cinema world in the home entertainment sector achieved a share of 4.3 percent. 22 films were released this year and 263 DVDs were released. The companies of the Kinowelt Group can collectively dispose of around 10,000 films.

history

Kinowelt AG

Kinowelt was founded in 1984 by Rainer and Michael Kölmel in Göttingen. The company initially specialized in relatively unknown films for art house cinemas. The first film for which the Kölmel brothers bought the distribution right was Gregory's Girl (1980) by Bill Forsyth . At the end of 1987 the young company moved to Munich and was converted into a GmbH. In 1994 the Kinowelt took over three cinemas in Cologne. The company's breakthrough came with the feature film The English Patient in 1996, the rights of which Kölmel bought for 1.5 million euros and which subsequently won nine Oscars . A rapid expansion course followed - in 1997 the annual turnover was the equivalent of approx. 55 million euros - and in 1998, with an annual turnover of almost 200 million DM, the IPO on the Neuer Markt as Kinowelt AG. In its heyday, Kinowelt Medien AG had a market capitalization of more than one billion euros. In a bidding dispute with RTL Group / Bertelsmann and the Kirch Group for a media package from Warner Bros. Entertainment with TV rights for 70 films, Kinowelt emerged victorious in August 1999 for a purchase price of DM 560 million. Because RTL and Kirch, as owners of the private television stations in Germany, did not include any films from the package in their programs, Kinowelt ran into increasingly financial difficulties from 2001 onwards. In the year 2000 Kinowelt had around 1000 employees and turned over 600 million DM. At the end of November 2001, the Kinowelt share, which was once quoted at 84 euros, had fallen to 60 cents. When the banks involved in the financing, including ABN AMRO with 140 million marks, finally canceled the loans, Kinowelt AG had to file for bankruptcy in December 2001 with a debt of half a billion euros .

Kinowelt GmbH

In 2003, Kölmel succeeded in acquiring the film library and 18 former subsidiaries of Kinowelt AG for his newly founded Kinowelt GmbH based in Leipzig from the bankruptcy estate for 32 million euros. This was financed by a private investment by the Kölmel brothers of 4.5 million euros and by bank loans, mainly from Sparkasse Leipzig. With his new company, which achieved a turnover of 44 million euros in 2003 and a year later had 80 employees, Kölmel was able to generate profits again. At the beginning of 2008, the Kinowelt Group was taken over by the French film company Studiocanal , a subsidiary of the Canal + Group, which in turn belongs to the French media group Vivendi , for an estimated 70 million euros by the press . However, Michael and Rainer Kölmel still act as consultants. From July 2008, Jan-Pelgrom de Haas was the chairman of the German management; on July 7, 2009, Wolfgang Braun took over this position.

Studiocanal GmbH

Since September 1, 2011, the company has been operating as the German branch of the Studiocanal Group under the name Studiocanal GmbH , based in Berlin. A three-year threshold clause was included in the purchase agreement from 2008, which prevented them from moving out of Leipzig for this period.

Holdings

  • Popular Film GmbH
  • Broadway Kino GmbH
  • Felix Film GmbH

Film production

  • Pro-ject film production in the film publishing house of the authors GmbH and project film production in the film publishing house of the authors GmbH & Co. production limited partnership .
  • Extrafilm Produktion GmbH

Film rental

The Kinowelt Filmverleih GmbH marketed in Germany under the two labels Kinowelt (from blockbusters to genre films) and arthouse film distribution (challenging films of the past and present, often from German production). In Austria, the Kinowelt films are distributed via the Filmladen / Lunafilm label , and in Switzerland via Frenetic Films .

The films released by Kinowelt-Verleih include the feature films The English Patient , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , The Eternal Gardener , The Free Will (Silver Bear at the Berlinale 2006), Mensch, Dave! (2008, with Eddie Murphy), Der Love Guru (2008, with Mike Myers), Die Stadt der Blinden (2008) and the documentaries Am Limit , Shine a Light , Die Reise der Pinguine and (the biggest box office hit to date) Germany . A summer fairy tale . Kinowelt achieved one of the greatest successes under the new name Studiocanal with the Hunger Games franchise in Germany.

DVD distribution

The Kinowelt Home Entertainment GmbH deals with the production, marketing and distribution of DVDs. Well over 1,000 titles are available.

License trading

The Kinowelt International GmbH is the trading company for licensing rights to the group. She deals with the purchase of film licenses for exploitation in the Kinowelt Group and, on the other hand, the worldwide granting of license rights for German-language and European films to cinema distributors, television broadcasters and DVD producers. In 2005 the DVD rights of the Kirch film library were acquired from the insolvency estate of the Kirch group (around 5000 titles). Kinowelt holds, among other things, rights to German film classics from the 1960s, films by the authors' film publishing house and several film series (such as Winnetou , Edgar Wallace, Doktor Mabuse and Asterix).

The companies also belong to this business area:

  • Youth film license exploitation GmbH
  • Broadway license exploitation GmbH & Co.KG
  • Epsilon Motion Pictures GmbH , financing of feature film productions as well as rights trading (a former subsidiary of the Kirch Group, acquired by Kinowelt in November 2005, 100% Kinowelt subsidiary since April 2006).

Film publisher of the authors

Founded in 1971 in Munich as a self-help organization for German auteur films, the film publishing house of the authors has been part of the Kinowelt group since 1999.

The following companies belong to it:

  • Film publisher of the authors and Futura Film GmbH & Co. Verleih Vertriebsgesellschaft KG
  • Futura Film GmbH
  • Futura Film world sales in the film publishing house of the authors GmbH

Cooperation with two thousand and one

On September 12th, 2006 it became known that the holding company MK Medien Beteiligungs GmbH of Kinowelt founders Michael Kölmel and Reiner Kölmel had taken over the dispatch of the publishing house two thousand and one for an undisclosed purchase price. After the sale of the Kinowelt Group, the two thousand and one remains in the possession of Michael Kölmel. The cooperation between Arthaus and Zweiausendeins is to be continued.

Former holdings

Arsenal film distribution

From 1999 to 2000 Kinowelt-Medien AG held a 75 percent stake in Arsenal Filmverleih , but Arsenal became independent again in 2001 before the Munich company went bankrupt.

B.TV

From July 2000 to January 2003, was Kinowelt Medien AG to 11.9 percent (as of February 2002, 10.72 percent) Württemberg Baden-at private stations B.TV involved. After Kinowelt-Medien AG filed for bankruptcy in December 2001, B.TV also filed for bankruptcy in July 2002. B.TV was taken over in January 2003 by the entrepreneur Thomas Hornauer and renamed BTV4U.

Cinema world TV

The Kinowelt Television GmbH operates since 2004 the private television channel Kinowelt TV , the movies radiates. Kinowelt TV is no longer socially connected to the cinema world. But both have the same roots.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2012 of STUDIOCANAL GmbH at www.bundesanzeiger.de, March 6, 2014, accessed on July 22, 2014.
  2. ↑ Kinowelt press release of June 30, 2011
  3. ↑ a b c d MDR : Dr. Portrait of Michael Kölmel ( memento from January 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), May 2, 2006.
  4. ↑ The ODEON-Lichtspieltheater in Cologne's Südstadt odeon-koeln.de, accessed: November 1, 2016
  5. ^ Michael Kölmel: Ex-stock market stars behind bars stern.de, October 30, 2002
  6. ↑ DVD Center: Background: Die Welt der Kinowelt ( Memento from August 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), March 16, 2000, accessed on July 2, 2009.
  7. ↑ Everything at the beginning of brandeins.de, January 2005
  8. ^ Last curtain for the challenger Kölmel handelsblatt.com, November 26, 2001
  9. ↑ Kinowelt AG is about to go bankrupt general-anzeiger-bonn.de, November 26, 2001
  10. ↑ Kinowelt insolvency: The bank exists, the bank takes it spiegel.de, November 26, 2001
  11. ↑ Article on Kinowelt Medien AG's bankruptcy petition , Handelsblatt , December 19, 2001
  12. ↑ Kölmel brothers get Kinowelt back tagesspiegel.de, August 10, 2002
  13. ↑ 70 million euro deal: Kölmel sells Kinowelt n24.de, January 17, 2008
  14. ↑ De Haas rules Kinowelt kress.de, July 4, 2008
  15. ↑ a b FAZ : Mail order: two thousand and one sees the "black zero" ( memento from May 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), February 12, 2008, accessed on July 12, 2009.
  16. ↑ Application for approval from B.TV Television GmbH & Co. KG on the homepage of the Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media Area (KEK) ( Memento from December 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 225 kB), August 15, 2000
  17. ↑ Notification of changes in ownership structure at the television broadcaster B.TV Television GmbH & Co. KG on the homepage of the Commission for Determining Concentration in the Media Sector (KEK) ( Memento from July 5, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 28 kB), April 16, 2002
  18. ↑ Article on B.TV's application for insolvency , Handelsblatt , July 31, 2002
  19. ↑ Article about the station name by Thomas Nornauer , Handelsblatt , January 22, 2003