Cinema mediator issues injunction to Megarama after its request to exclude certain small theaters

The cinema network is accusing small theaters of “distorting competition” because they offer discounted tickets.

Published on 11/05/2026 at 14:17

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The cinema mediator Laurence Franceschini issued an injunction to Megarama on Thursday, asking them to stop their “commercial practices” that call for a boycott of certain small theaters, according to a letter seen by France Inter on Monday, May 11. The cinema network had asked many distributors in early March to limit access to films, in national release, in several small municipal theaters accused of “distorting competition,” particularly due to ticket prices.

Franceschini received a request from the National Cinema and Animated Image Center (CNC) on April 30. In the letter, Laurence Franceschini urges Megarama to “end commercial practices aimed at preventing certain distributors from entrusting the national release of their films to municipal theaters in the catchment area of their stores,” as stated in the letter. This injunction is “a clear victory,” said François Aymé, director of the Jean Eustache cinema in Pessac, Gironde, and former president of the French Association of Arthouse Cinemas, as contacted by France Inter.

Megarama, with around thirty cinema multiplexes in France, sent an email on March 3 requesting distributors such as Pathé, Metropolitan Films, and Gaumont to boycott several small municipal theaters. In the email, accessed by France Inter, Megarama listed several theaters that it believes create “distorted competition in terms of exposure and ticket prices for films in national release.” Megarama therefore asks distributors to “take these elements into account prior to discussing [their] upcoming releases.”

The mentioned cinemas are located in Val-de-Marne, Essonne, and Oise. Most of these subsidized small municipal theaters sell tickets at lower prices than the Megarama multiplexes. For example, the cinema in Perreux-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) has stated that it has been receiving films with three to four weeks’ delay since early March.

Since the email from Megarama, a petition has been launched by the Proximity Cinema Union. Named “For the defense of access to films from proximity cinemas,” it has gathered over 2,500 signatures.