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  1. #1
    Extraordinary Member Gaastra's Avatar
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    Default France sets rule?: Movies must be three years old to go on streaming sites!

    From whats on Disney plus. Looks like France set up a new law! To protect video stores and movie chains no movie will be on any streaming site for three years! This includes Netflix and Disney plus! TV shows and tv/ dtv movies don't count!


    Man if they did that here dvds may not be dying in America and we still may have more video stores!

    What do you guys think of this?



  2. #2
    King of Wakanda Midvillian1322's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gaastra View Post
    From whats on Disney plus. Looks like France set up a new law! To protect video stores and movie chains no movie will be on any streaming site for three years! This includes Netflix and Disney plus! TV shows and tv/ dtv movies don't count!


    Man if they did that here dvds may not be dying in America and we still may have more video stores!

    What do you guys think of this?


    Would it make sense then for Disney to maybe just not release certain movies in France and just let them go to Disney +? Or is France big enough of a market they need that Boxoffice over the streaming content? Serious question in have no idea

  3. #3
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    I have literally no idea how things work in France but 3 years seems like a helluva long time to go to streaming.

  4. #4
    Ultimate Member Gray Lensman's Avatar
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    Either France will become it's own region and wait alone for streaming or they will not get a lot of films. That seems the most likely result to me.
    Dark does not mean deep.

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member jetengine's Avatar
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    The question is, is this a french rule or will it spread to the EU ?
    Either way its a bad idea. You cant save an industry like video rentals or DVDs when their dying because of evolution.

  6. #6
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    A VPN will get around this. Also Disney is now incentized to tell France that they won't release films there put them directly on Disney Plus to bypass the process So you just hurt theaters and don't gain anything for video stores. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if France becomes the beta test for this.

  7. #7
    Extraordinary Member MichaelC's Avatar
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    Sounds like something a lobbyist designed to save an industry that can't be saved.

  8. #8
    Astonishing Member Frobisher's Avatar
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    They should also make a law that it must be on VHS only for a year before going to digital formats, to protect the tape industry.

  9. #9
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    French people will pirate even more if that law comes out.

  10. #10
    Extraordinary Member Gaastra's Avatar
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    The video says it's to protect movie theaters chains also as sales are down and movies are coming out 2 months after release! Heck you can preorder the dvd BEFORE the films movie release! Yet a study just confirmed that the most people going to the movie right now are---streamers who buy digital copies! Turns out teens and streamers are the ones going to the movies the most! What's killing the movies is a family of four in the big city would have to pay over $100 to go see one movie!

    As for streaming vs dvd I do both myself. Most blu-rays come with digital copies and vudu has the $2 disk to digital program. But I do remember as a kid you had to wait 6 months before a movie came out on video to protect movie theaters sales. That lead to Christmas movies coming out in summer!


    Netflix is like a digital hbo to me. How long did it take hbo to get a movie back then? Anyone know?


    Campea talks about the streaming vs movies here.

    Last edited by Gaastra; 09-02-2019 at 06:22 AM.

  11. #11

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    OK, so France doesn't believe in the free marketplace, but fortunately the US does.


    It should be up to the companies involved (studios and theaters) and the marketplace they serve to determine how and when movies will go from theaters to streaming, not the government.

    If that means no more video rental stores, so be it. In the US, we still have a consumer base that wants DVDs and Blu-Rays to purchase (like me), and those customers will still be served with physical media without governmental interference.

    I don't see how the France rule will protect movie theaters in any event. It seems unnecessary as movies don't play in theaters for three years anywhere in the world, and I'm sure Disney hasn't been releasing movies on streaming day-and-date with its theatrical release.

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Midvillian1322 View Post
    Would it make sense then for Disney to maybe just not release certain movies in France and just let them go to Disney +? Or is France big enough of a market they need that Boxoffice over the streaming content? Serious question in have no idea
    Well, let's take a look at the movies that Disney released this year and see how much they made in France (to date -- as some films are still in release):


    Avengers: Endgame - $62,270,586 in France / $2,796,258,402 worldwide = 2.2%

    Lion King remake - $71,422,654 / $1,564,474,294 = 4.6%

    Captain Marvel - $27,093,603 / $1,128,274,794 = 2.6%

    Toy Story 4 - $28,760,993 / $1,044,286,899 = 2.8%

    Aladdin remake - $18,556,551 / $1,044,104,559 = 1.8%

    Dumbo remake - $17,387,953 / $353,030,225 = 4.9%

    Mary Poppins Returns - $11,455,926 / $349,537,494 = 3.3%

    Ralph Breaks the Internet - $15,617,886 / $529,323,962 = 3.0%



    It seems that France as a market is never above 5% and most often 3% or less in terms of its contribution to worldwide grosses. That may not seem like a lot, but those eight movies listed above grossed about $252.6 million in France with more films to come in the rest of the year.

    I don't know how much of those grosses Disney is able to repatriate to its bottom line, but looking at the top line, it's hard for a company to just dismiss over a quarter-billion dollars in revenues even if most of it stays with the theaters in France. I suspect French theater owners wouldn't like Disney to skip the theatrical window there and go direct to streaming.

    Maybe Disney will seek to put pressure on the French theater owners to talk to their government to change its mind by holding the direct-to-streaming option over the theater owners' heads.

    As with everything else in business, it'll come down to numbers. Will Disney lose more in streaming by waiting three years than it would by skipping the theatrical release?

    Disney might call France's bluff and try to go the direct-to-streaming route in order to discourage other countries from following France's lead.

    As usual, when a government tries to fix something, it ends up breaking something else.
    Last edited by Comic-Reader Lad; 09-02-2019 at 07:34 AM.

  13. #13
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    Americans forget that they have a population of 330 million and other countries have much lower populations like France's 65 million. I'm in Canada which has a population of 37.5 million.

    Think of what would happen to the video businesses in France, if the Disney Plus service was free to dump all its content on its channel--those businesses would collapse. Pretty soon all the content in France would be coming from the United States. That's a cultural invasion.

    Countries with a much smaller population can't compete against the influx of American products, without some kind of protection for their homegrown businnesses. If they don't have some barriers to American competition, they will have no businesses or cultures of their own. A free marektplace over the whole world would have forced a global American sameness on the world long ago.

    Of course, Americans perceive these boundaries as unfair and impose penalties--and that's how you get a trade war. Economies of scale being what they are, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, China could soon overwhelm the United States with its products--unless the USA has its own protections against foreign competition.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    Americans forget that they have a population of 330 million and other countries have much lower populations like France's 65 million. I'm in Canada which has a population of 37.5 million.

    Think of what would happen to the video businesses in France, if the Disney Plus service was free to dump all its content on its channel--those businesses would collapse. Pretty soon all the content in France would be coming from the United States. That's a cultural invasion.

    Countries with a much smaller population can't compete against the influx of American products, without some kind of protection for their homegrown businnesses. If they don't have some barriers to American competition, they will have no businesses or cultures of their own. A free marektplace over the whole world would have forced a global American sameness on the world long ago.

    Of course, Americans perceive these boundaries as unfair and impose penalties--and that's how you get a trade war. Economies of scale being what they are, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, China could soon overwhelm the United States with its products--unless the USA has its own protections against foreign competition.
    100% This!

    The only thing I want to add is also the american consumer mindset that they are entitled to entertainment at a free cost. People work hard to make the tv, music, and movies that we enjoy, should they not be compensated for it. I'm not talking about the actor or musician who makes millions each year but how about the stage hands, assistants, and the people in the supply chain distribution areas who are middle class and need jobs too. If countries create laws to try to protect their citizens then that's their right and that's what they should be doing because at the end of the day as Americans we would want our politicians to do the same for us (china trade war ring a bell?).
    Last edited by ComicJunkie21; 09-02-2019 at 09:35 AM.

  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    Americans forget that they have a population of 330 million and other countries have much lower populations like France's 65 million. I'm in Canada which has a population of 37.5 million.

    Think of what would happen to the video businesses in France, if the Disney Plus service was free to dump all its content on its channel--those businesses would collapse. Pretty soon all the content in France would be coming from the United States. That's a cultural invasion.

    Countries with a much smaller population can't compete against the influx of American products, without some kind of protection for their homegrown businnesses. If they don't have some barriers to American competition, they will have no businesses or cultures of their own. A free marektplace over the whole world would have forced a global American sameness on the world long ago.

    Of course, Americans perceive these boundaries as unfair and impose penalties--and that's how you get a trade war. Economies of scale being what they are, with a population of over 1.4 billion people, China could soon overwhelm the United States with its products--unless the USA has its own protections against foreign competition.
    I'm not agreeing with your argument here.

    France is saying streaming services must wait 3 years to be able to stream theatrical content in order to protect the video stores.

    I don't see how this stops any "cultural invasion." It just changes the point of attack from streaming services to video stores THEN streaming services. Either way, French consumers are gobbling up Disney stuff so the cultural invasion is happening.

    If France were to limit the number of American films that can be shown in France -- the way China does -- then your argument would apply here, but even then, I don't see it stopping the American cultural invasion because when the Chinese can't see an American movie, they simply bootleg it.

    The marketplaces around the world have spoken. They want the American cultural invasion -- and they'll get it any way they can.

    Look at the China grosses for Bohemian Rhapsody. Queen is very popular there, but the movie only made $13 million. Why? Because the movie opened by November 2 in most of the world -- except China. In China, it opened 4.5 months later in late March. By then, anyone who wanted to see it in China had already downloaded it. This killed the China box office for this flick.

    The French law doesn't protect the French movie industry or the French culture against the onslaught of American culture. It simply protects French video stores.

    So they can stay open to sell more American products.

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