Unlimited cinema: How are distributors and rights holders compensated?

With an unlimited cinema subscription, you don’t pay for an individual ticket for each screening included in your plan. That doesn’t mean distributors and rights holders stop being paid. The National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) explains that the system is based in part on a reference price per seat, which is used to calculate this remuneration.

It is therefore important to distinguish between two things: the price of your subscription, which corresponds to your access plan, and this reference value, which comes into play in economic dealings between industry professionals. The reference price is not a new amount viewers have to pay each time they watch something. Nor is it, by itself, the amount paid to each beneficiary: it serves as the basis for calculating their remuneration.

This system is regulated. According to the CNC’s page on cinema subscription plans, an exhibitor wishing to offer unlimited admissions must obtain prior approval. The application must include the general subscription terms and conditions, a list of the venues where the plan will be accepted, and financial data enabling the CNC to verify the criteria used to set the reference price.

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The arrangement also provides for other cinemas to join. When an exhibitor exceeds certain thresholds for admissions or revenue, it must offer smaller operators in its area the opportunity to join its plan, subject to the eligibility conditions, with a guaranteed minimum payment. This obligation therefore does not apply indiscriminately to all cinemas.

The question is different from that of the average cinema ticket price, which describes attendance and box-office revenue statistics, or the minimum guarantee paid by a distributor. Here, the reference price makes it possible to calculate remuneration even when the viewer does not pay per unit.

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