StudioCanal

StudioCanal (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image) 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.

Background
The company was founded in 1988 by Pierre Lescure as a spin-off of the Canal+ pay-TV network. The original function was to focus on French and European productions, but later made strategic deals with American production companies. StudioCanal's most notable productions from its early years include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, JFK, Basic Instinct, Cliffhanger, Under Siege, Free Willy, and the original Stargate movie. In those days, it was known as Le Studio Canal+.

Other films the company financed include U-571, Bully, and Bridget Jones's Diary. StudioCanal also funded the last third of David Lynch's film Mulholland Drive. StudioCanal also financed French-language films, such as Brotherhood of the Wolf (which became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States in the last two decades) and Intimate Strangers (which is being remade by Hollywood-based Paramount Pictures). The biggest box office hits for StudioCanal have been Terminator 2: Judgment Day which grossed US$519 million, Basic Instinct which grossed US$352 million and The Tourist which grossed US$278 million worldwide.

Film library
StudioCanal acquired film libraries from studios that either went defunct or had merged with it over the years; as a result, the company's library is one of the largest in the world, with over 6,000 titles.

StudioCanal owns the libraries of the following companies:
 * Carolco Pictures, including:
 * The Vista Organization
 * Seven Arts (joint venture with New Line Cinema)
 * Paravision International, including:
 * Parafrance Films
 * De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, including:
 * Embassy Pictures
 * Lumiere Pictures and Television (currently owned as a result of parent company Canal+ Group's acquisition of cinema operator UGC who acquired those company, via Cannon Films), including:
 * EMI Films, including:
 * British Lion Films
 * Anglo-Amalgamated, including:
 * Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
 * Associated British Picture Corporation, including:
 * Associated British Corporation
 * Associated British Productions
 * British International Pictures
 * Welwyn Studios
 * Ealing Studios, including:
 * Associated Talking Pictures and Associated British Film Distributors
 * London Films
 * Studio Ghibli (United Kingdom and Ireland only)
 * Miramax (most international home video releases)
 * Alexander Salkind/Pueblo Film Licensing (the non-Superman films not owned by Warner Bros.)
 * Quad Cinema

Television series
StudioCanal currently owns the rights to over 30 television series, mostly produced by TANDEM Productions and Red Production Company, including The Avengers, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, Paranoid, Public Eye, Crazyhead, Take Two, Wanted Dead or Alive, and international rights to The Big Valley.

Acquisitions
StudioCanal acquired British distributor Optimum Releasing in 2006 as their first expansion into an international market. 2 years later, their second expansion into an international market took place with StudioCanal's acquisition of German distributor Kinowelt who had distributed their films up to that point. Both companies have since then been renamed StudioCanal. StudioCanal's acquisition of Australian distributor Hoyts Distribution took place in 2012 and was StudioCanal's third expansion into an international market.

In June 2016, StudioCanal acquired the intellectual rights to the Paddington Bear brand, along with the Copyrights Group, the franchise's merchandise licensing agent. StudioCanal then announced that it would be producing three more Paddington films.

Distributors
Outside France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia/New Zealand and German-speaking countries, 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, Image Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Universal Pictures, distribute StudioCanal's back catalogue on DVD and Blu-ray Disc (in addition, Anchor Bay Entertainment used to previously handle several of their titles). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment handles distribution of StudioCanal/Hoyts Distribution films in Australia and New Zealand on DVD and Blu-ray.

StudioCanal also handles home video distribution of 550 titles from the Miramax library within Europe (Lionsgate handles American and most international distribution, while Entertainment One handles Canadian distribution) since February 2011.