Apollo Films: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The trio behind Mediawan, the French company which recently acquired a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B, have made an offer to buy CGR Cinema, France’s second biggest multiplex chain, Variety has confirmed. The bid has been made by Pierre-Antoine Capton and French telecom tycoon Xavier Niel, the co-founders of Mediawan. Capton and Niel are being backed by a consortium which includes Matthieu Pigasse, a big-time financier who is the third co-founder of Mediawan, among others. The offer values CGR Cinemas below €500 million ($300 million), according to a source closed to discussions. The British fund Aermont Capital has also made an offer, according to the French news site “L’informé.”

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWhile promoting the French release of his 2020 film “Rifkin’s Festival,” Woody Allen said he was planning to shoot his next movie in Paris. The New York-based director told the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that he was aiming to relocate to Paris in September to lens his next project which he said will be a French-language movie with a local cast. Allen said he was able to find the financing in the U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentSlowing emerging from a two-year pandemic, France’s second biggest multiplex chain behind Pathé, CGR Cinemas, has been put on the market by its owners, Luc Raymond and Charles Raymond, Variety has confirmed.The family-owned business has an estimated value of about $1.1 billion, according to Jocelyn Bouyssy, CGR’s long-time managing director who has been tapped to find a buyer for the group.Founded in 1966 in the Southwestern town of La Rochelle, CGR Cinemas now boasts 74 venues, over 700 screens and more than 2,000 staffers on the payroll. The company began diversifying in recent years by investing in the French distribution company Apollo Films, as well as in hotels and restaurants.