This consortium has been present in Europe since the beginning of the 1980s, first in Spain, then the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. It effectively brings together the second and third US majors. Paramount, despite frequent quarrels between its shareholders and its management, is the major which has achieved the most consistent success; they follow close on Disney's heels in the US market. The company is weakened by its dispersive share ownership and is currently the subject of a friendly takeover bid by Viacom, the multi-media group, which is involved in the television market (MTV), cable channels and systems (Nickelodeon) but is also linked to some exhibition interests in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
 
Universal, subsidiary of MCA Inc since 1962, which itself was taken over by Matsushita in 1990, is, in terms of market share, the third US major, roughly at the same level as Columbia and Warner.
 
UCI seems therefore to play a similar role to that played by the UIP consortium in distribution. In 1970, Paramount and MCA founded a common structure for foreign distribution and marketing of films produced/distributed in the US and Canada. In contrast to what has happened in the exhibition market, this structure was enlarged fairly soon after, to include MGM.
 
UIP is therefore the second European distributor, after Warner/Disney(15), but well ahead of Columbia. As it clearly constitutes an agreement between competing companies, UIP had to obtain, in 1988, an authorisation from the European Commission to exempt it from Article 85 of the treaty of Rome for five years. This exemption came up for renewal in July 1993, and became the subject of discussions in DG IV, which furthermore has become interested in UCI’s activity in cinemas.
(15) Without Disney, Warner is second and UIP first.

 
The UIP and UCI cases will soon come up, as much because of the composition of the shareholding body as because of the European Commission's discussions. However, the links between UIP and UCI are far from obvious - with the exception of the Spanish market, where the subsidiary of UCI, Cinesa, seems to give programming priority to films distributed by UIP.
 
Except for the Iberian peninsula, UCI's screens consist almost exclusively of multiplexes, whose supply needs obviously exceed UIP films alone. Their programming policy is therefore "all product". Besides, the market share of UCI in Europe is scarcely 5%, whereas that of UIP is of the order of 15%.
 
 
Presence in the United Kingdom
 
Since the second half of the 1980s, UCI has followed a similar policy to Warner, National Amusements and, to a lesser extent, MGM, by developing multiplexes seeking to duplicate in the UK market the formula which has proved itself in the US.
 
UCI was the first company to start such operations, having taken over AMC, the first British multiplex operator, in 1985. Since then, the number of multiplexes opened has multiplied (10 screens in 1985; 16 in 1987, 60 in 1988, 55 in 1989, 40 in 1990), even if the group has since proved more selective. With 24 establishments (213 screens), of which 22 are multiplexes, they have nearly 50,000 seats and record about 18 million admissions each year (about 17.5% of the national total).
 
In eight years, the consortium controlled by Paramount and MCA/Universal thus succeeded in becoming the third British network. Its circuit is also, together with that of National Amusement, the most homogeneous. Except for the UCI Empire (with 3 screens in the West End, serving as a "showcase" for films distributed by UIP), the programming policy of these screens, "all product", is very similar. And their screens, the majority of which are in 10-screen multiplexes, are all very much alike.
 
Moreover, if Viacom’s bid for Paramount goes through, the number of theatres in the network is likely to be swelled by the probable addition of those curently run by Viacom.
 
 
In the other European countries..

• In Germany, UCI was the first operator to open a multiplex. In this country, where UIP holds a market share of distribution of around 20% depending on the year, UCI only has three multiplexes. These were constructed between 1990 and 1992, and include 42 screens (9,300 seats); they record about 3% of national admissions, which makes UCI the most important foreign exhibitor in the market.

• In Ireland, UCI possesses two multiplexes, one with 10 screens and the other with 12, in the suburbs of Dublin, which weaken the position of the "historical leader" in this market, Ward Anderson.

As in Germany and the United Kingdom, programming policy throughout their cinemas is "all product".

 
•  In Spain, UCI controls the leading circuit in the country. The major has been present on the market since 1981, the year when it acquired 50% of Cinesa, the leading Spanish firm, and when it launched itself into the creation of multiplexes. At the beginning of 1993, UCI became the only shareholder in the circuit, by acquiring the rest of the share capital.
  Cinesa brings together 73 screens, of which half are owned by the circuit and the rest simply affiliated. At the national level, its market share is estimated at about 10%, and its turnover at 3.5 billion Ptas.   The circuit's development seems to be gathering momentum. From 1989, Cinesa opened complexes in commercial centres in the outskirts of the big cities. This policy will be carried further by the opening of establishments at Murcia, Saragossa, Santiago de Compostella, Barcelona and Bilbao.   The films which are programmed are essentially "main stream", but Cinesa points out that its theatres are virtually the only ones to fulfill their Spanish product quotas. Despite an "all products" policy, 30% of releases on the circuit are UIP films, while UIP’s market share in Spain is no higher than 17%.

 
General description - Shareholders
 
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Communications, ex MGM/Pathé, is currently - but provisionally - controlled by the French state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais; there is a legal battle going on between the bank and its former client, Giancarlo Paretti. In 1990, the latter joined together MGM, acquired from Kirk Kerkorian, and his own company, Pathé Films, but could not then meet his debt obligations to Crédit Lyonnais, so he has ceased trading.
 
Even though MGM has been until recently one of the powerful Hollywood majors (known for spectacular film productions like West Side Story, Doctor Zhivago, 2001 Space Odyssey), it now seems to be considerably weakened by the many changes in management it has experienced. Despite the success in 1990/91 of Thelma and Louise, it has since been less active in production. Its market share in exhibition has reduced considerably (to the order of 1%) so much so that MGM is today very much the smallest of the seven Hollywood majors.

However, following the various financial operations undertaken by or imposed upon the company (Cannon, Pathé etc.), MGM now owns a considerable number of cinemas in Europe. Including the MGM/Nordisk circuit, in which it has a 50% share, MGM records nearly 40 million admissions a year in Europe. Its market share is nearly 7%, sufficient to make it the most important European-wide player.
 
In Europe, the integrated structure and character of the company is limited: MGM does not own its own distribution structure; its products are marketed by the UIP consortium, with which it is associated. Moreover, unlike Paramount which has invested several times in European productions (Is Paris Burning?, Caesar and Rosalie, Shirley Valentine) MGM has only exceptionally intervened in European production.
 
 
Presence in the United Kingdom
 
In contrast to the troubled history which its parent company has experienced, MGM/Cannon is by far the most important circuit in the United Kingdom. With 414 screens, split between 128 sites, it records nearly 30 million cinema admissions per year, which is 29.5% of total admissions.
 
The configuration of its group of cinemas differs substantially from that of its nearest competitor, Odeon, and from that of the other circuits controlled by the US majors, UCI and Warner. MGM/Cannon's cinemas are hybrid: they include multiplexes (28% of screens) and little complexes with between 2 and 4 screens (66% of screens).
 
Historical factors linked to the various companies which were toned into the circuit (MGM Cinema Properties, Cannon Exhibition, Cinema 5, Gallery, etc.) and to mergers and acquisitions means that MGM/Cannon is now the only US major which owns cinemas other than multiplexes. It owns nearly a hundred cinemas with less than 4 screens, situated throughout the country.
 
Nevertheless, by contrast with Odeon, MGM/Cannon prefers to rationalise its holdings by selling cinemas to other operators in order to concentrate increasingly on multiplexes and London cinemas, rather than to convert existing sites into multiplexes. MGM has rapidly followed the movement associated with UCI when the latter took over its first multiplex in the United Kingdom in 1985. In its wake, MGM in fact multiplied the number of screens: 8 multiplex screens in 1986, 10 in 1987, 18 in 1989, another 18 in 1990 and above all, 61 in 1991. Unlike Odeon, the MGM/Cannon group states that it is convinced that the future avenue for exhibition will be the multiplexes, and has therefore constructed four times more multiplexes than its direct competitor. Except for two cinemas in London and one in Glasgow, this circuit has no other complexes with more than five screens.
 
This strategy communicates itself in the brand policy of the network: the MGM/Cannon logo only appears in the multiplexes; the Cannon logo alone is used in the other cinemas.
 
In the United Kingdom, the movement to open multiplexes is slowing down. Nevertheless, MGM has announced its intention to construct a "megaplex" next, with more than 20 screens, on a site which it has already chosen, near London, and it is even envisaging opening another cinema of this type.
 
 
In the other European countries...

• In Ireland, MGM (formerly Cannon) owns, through its intermediary and subsidiary, the Adelphi-Carlton Group, two cinemas, the Adelphi and the Carlton, each with four screens in the centre of Dublin. According to the "alignments" formula, these cinemas are linked to UIP, even though in the market within the Irish capital, MGM are UCI's competitors.

The number of screens which MGM holds in Ireland is going to double at the end of 1994, with the opening in Parnell Street of a multiplex, within easy reach of the city centre.  
• In Denmark, MGM holds 50% of MGM Nordisk Biografer AS, the leading circuit in the country, which records more than a third of total national admissions. Its presence is particularly sensitive in Copenhagen, where it owns two thirds of the market, mostly thanks to the Palads, a multiplex with 17 screens and 2,500 seats (turnover 40 million Kr), and the biggest cinema in the country, the Imperial.
  In Copenhagen, these cinemas are essentially either programmed by UIP or by Nordisk, MGM's partner on the network. In 1992, the three complexes in the capital controlled by MGM/Nordisk showed only four films distributed by Warner, for example.  
• In the Netherlands, MGM controls a circuit of 66 screens, mostly located in the west of the country, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague. But this network, formerly held by Rank, then by Cannon which sold it, then by MGM, is mostly composed of multi-screen cinemas. MGM has announced that it will invest progressively into multiplexes.

 

At the end of 1992, the network had seven cinemas, totalling 64 screens, totalling admissions just over the 3 million mark (2.9% of the market). Moreover, Warner does not have a clear concept for its sites. Three of its multiplexes have 7 screens; two others have between 8 and 11, and two have 12 screens.
 
However, with the exception of the West End complex, where films distributed by Warner are given programming priority, all the other establishments have a policy of "all product" programming. Even more than in the cases of MGM and UCI, the distribution and exhibition structures are formed around different profit centres, and the links between them seem to be tenuous.
 
 
In the other European countries
 

• In Germany, Warner has a market share of distribution which varies from 16 to 35% according to the year; it also owns a multiplex with 9 screens at Gelsenkirchen which records about 1% of total admissions. But the major does not appear to have another development projects in the pipeline except a second multiplex (8 screens - 1,800 seats) opened at the end of 1993 in Mülheim, on the Ruhr.

• Warner signed a "joint venture" agreement with Lusomundo, the leading Portuguese circuit, in 1991, in order to construct multiplexes in Portugal and Spain. The first effect of this agreement was the opening of a complex with 7 screens in Cascais; another establishment is under construction in Lisbon. Several projects have been announced for the next few years, to construct multiplexes in various Spanish cities. Between now and 1995, the creation of 50 screens is forecast. A first complex will open in any case in the outskirts of Madrid during 1994. 
  
  In Denmark, Warner is associated with a local multi-media group, Metronome Holdings AS. Together, they own a distribution house; Warner and Metronome, and the Dagmar/Scala circuit, which manages two complexes with 4 and 5 screens in Copenhagen. In a market which is dominated by Nordisk, their programming essentially consists of films distributed by Warner.

UGC
 

UGC now owns more than 250 screens, and nearly another 100 are programmed by it, which makes it the leading French circuit. It is also present on the Belgian market, where it owns, with the public investment company SRIB, the De Brouckère complex in the centre of Brussels.
 
The programming of these theatres is obviously based on films distributed by the group, which moreover are inevitably insufficient for their requirements - the group has only an 8% share of the distribution market - and the circuit has to buy in extensively from other players to obtain popular French and U.S. titles.
 
Thanks particularly to the agreements with Pathé, UGC has been able to regroup its establishments in a number of local markets, which allows it to speed up its modernisation efforts. The circuit maintains a significant presence in Lyon, where it owns several important multi-screen complexes. It should also open multiplexes in 1994 in the provinces (Rouen) and in Paris (Bercy).
 
Position of UGC in the principal French local markets is as follows:
 

Pathé
 

Cinema 5