StudioCanal
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production, and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world. The company is a unit of the Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi.
Formerly
Canal+ Production (1988–1990)
Le Studio Canal+ (1990–2000)
Canal+ D.A. (1992–2000)
- Lumiere Pictures and Television
- Paravision International
- Carolco Pictures
1988
Afro-Eurasia
Oceania
- StudioCanal UK
- StudioCanal Australia
- StudioCanal GmbH
- StudioCanal Original
- Tandem Productions
- Paddington and Company
- Copyrights Group
- Harvey Unna and Stephen Durbridge Limited
- Red Production Company
- SAM Productions ApS
- SunnyMarch TV (20%)
- Urban Myth Films
- Bambú Producciones (33%)
- Lailaps Films
- ROK Studios
- British Pathé
- Dutch FilmWorks (majority)
- The Picture Company (minority)
Distribution[edit]
Outside France, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand and Germany, 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, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (for the Embassy catalog), Universal Pictures (for co-productions), Shout! Factory and Kino Lorber distribute StudioCanal's back catalogue on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (in addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Image Entertainment previously owned several of their titles). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has handled distribution of StudioCanal/Hoyts Distribution films in Australia and New Zealand on DVD and Blu-ray since early 2013.
From the 1990s to early 2000s, Warner Home Video formerly handled distribution of select StudioCanal titles through the Canal+ Image label in the United Kingdom on VHS and DVD until 2006 when StudioCanal opened its own distribution unit in the UK, with titles distributed through Optimum Releasing (via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment from 2006 to 2007 and Elevation Sales since 2007).[36]
StudioCanal had the European home video distribution rights to 550 titles from the Miramax library from 2011 to 2020,[37][38] when ViacomCBS bought a minority stake in Miramax.
On October 13, 2021, StudioCanal announced that its global distribution deal with Universal would expire in January 2022. Later that year, they started distributing their home media releases through Plaion Pictures in Germany. In early 2024, they started distributing their home media releases in France through ESC Distribution.[39]