France, who has the most notoriously strict film window release policy on the planet, is about to change its ways.
The country’s culture minister has passed a decree allowing the National Film Board (CNC) to tweak the policy so that under the exceptional measures, films that came out last week and were in theaters as of March 14th will be allowed to go straight to VOD.
Cinemas were ordered to close on March 14th due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. The minster has stated clearly that the policy change is temporary.
In France, transactional VOD windows are at four months whilst subscription-based windows are set at 36 months for global platforms such as Netflix
The decree has now garnered support from exhibitors and is expected to help avoid a cluttered release schedule across theaters down the line. Dozens of films are already rescheduled for the Fall.
France has been in lockdown for six days, with theaters, schools, shops and restaurants shut down.
Source: Variety
