Jean Labadie's Bac Majestic has announced its 2002 revenues, which registered a 3.5% drop to Euros90.8m for the year.

Bac puts the slip down to the tapering off of its exhibition activities: it closed or sold theatres last year in Lille, Brest, Nimes and Paris

Overall, exhibition was down to Euros3.2m from Euros6.8m in 2001. This year will also see the company divest of sites in Toulon and Douai.


With such hits as 8 Women and The Pianist under its belt, the company did see a slight rise in overall distribution perfomance to Euros85.2m, up 1.9% over 2001. Although theatrical distrbution dropped 4.9% to Euros47.3m, video was up to Euros15.7m thanks to Wild Side Video, the video production and distribution arm set up by Manuel Chiche at 2002's AFM.


After a highly publicised split with Miramax - Bac previously had an output deal with the mini-major that has now set up its own shop in France via a joint-venture with TF1 - and losses in exhibition, Jean Labadie's company found itself nearly bankrupt last year. Boutique arm Mars Distribution was signed over to StudioCanal.

In January, Labadie signed an accord with StudioCanal and other investors to keep the company afloat and is now predicting 2003 to be an even year with such films as Oscar nominee Adaptation and Coline Serreau's Trois Hommes Et Un Couffin (Three Men And A Baby) follow-up, 18 Ans Apres which has been doing healthy business since its February release.