Leading German producer-distributor Constantin Film plans to concentrate its energies even more on the feature film sector in future.
Speaking to the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Thomas Friedl, Constantin's board member for distribution and marketiing, said that his company was "assuming that the TV market will remain weak in 2003. We therefore will continue to put our money on cinema where we are also profitable."
While Constantin's revenues from feature films represented 40% of total sales last year, its TV operations had seen its share in revenues fall from 30% to 12% in the first nine months of 2002 due to the parlous state of broadcasters' finances.
Friedl explained that Constantin's distribution arm would release at least 20 new films this year, including eight in-house productions. Among the forthcoming releases are the German family entertainment film Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer, the fourth feature in the Werner franchise, and the Brazilian drama City Of God.
In addition, the Munich-based company plans to increase its market share from last year's 9%-10% to 12% by the beginning of 2004, although Friedl admitted that this would "certainly not be possible solely through German productions". He argued that the market share could be raised by focussing on the in-house production of internationally marketable pictures a la Resident Evil which took more than $100m worldwide last year.
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