Amazon MGM Studios will release films in French cinemas under its own banner for the first time, starting with Michael B. Jordan’s The Thomas Crown Affair on 3 March 2027. The heist thriller had been due to go out through Sony Pictures Entertainment France under the studios’ international pact. It keeps its date, Imax screens included.
The French trade magazine Boxoffice Pro reported the switch on 6 November after the title dropped off Sony’s French schedule; Screen International added detail on 9 November. Amazon MGM is opening offices territory by territory, and in each market Sony stops distributing the studio’s films once the local office is ready. In France, that moment now has a date.
Key facts
- Second dated title: The Haunting of Hotel Transylvania, 6 October 2027, the fifth film in the series and a Sony Pictures Animation production
- Rest of the slate: two more films in 2027 and five in 2028, none yet titled
- Local team: head of distribution Lucie Trampoglieri, marketing director Marion Pistoresi, theatrical publicist Go-oun Breyne
From stopgap to own operation
Sony signed on in June 2025, as Amazon MGM’s output deal with Warner Bros. outside North America was running out and before it had offices abroad. The multi-year pact was a bridge: Amazon MGM would release its own films wherever it opened an office, and Sony, whose Pictures division has just posted a 37% rise in quarterly sales, would carry on elsewhere.
To build that network, Amazon MGM hired Helen Moss in August 2025 from Paramount, where she had spent 17 years, latterly as senior vice-president of international distribution. At its first CineEurope presentation in June, the studio said teams were going into Spain, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Australia, and Moss restated its pledge of 15 films a year.
In France, Sony has released Mercy, Project Hail Mary and Verity for Amazon MGM, and will open David Leitch’s How to Rob a Bank on Wednesday 11 November before stepping aside.
Elsewhere the switch has yet to come. Sony will still release The Thomas Crown Affair in UK cinemas on 4 March, the day after the French opening and a day before Amazon MGM opens it in the US.
The film
Jordan directs, produces and stars in the new take on Norman Jewison’s 1968 thriller with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, first remade in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan. He plays an art thief who falls for the insurance investigator on his trail (Adria Arjona), while an adversary played by Kenneth Branagh closes in. Lily Gladstone also stars. Drew Pearce and Jason Hall wrote the screenplay; Jon Batiste composed the score.
The streaming window
France’s media chronology, the rules governing each window after cinema release, lets Prime Video stream a theatrical release 17 months after it opens. That would bring The Thomas Crown Affair to the service in France from August 2028, Screen reported.
The wait may shorten. An amendment to Prime Video’s agreement with the regulator Arcom, adopted in May, sets Amazon’s commitment to French and European production at a minimum of €90m ($100m) a year for 2026–28, rising to €110m ($123m) if it can stream at least one film less than 12 months after release, BFM TV reported. That hinges on a deal with French cinema organisations, which Arcom has given until 31 December.
What is not known
Amazon MGM has not titled the rest of its French slate or dated the opening of its other offices. Sony has not commented publicly on the handover.
Our reading
French distribution is a national craft, fought out in a weekly admissions chart under some of the strictest window rules anywhere. An office of its own gives Amazon MGM control of dates, marketing spend and terms with cinemas, at the cost of a fixed local overhead.
The sequence is what to watch. In early March the same film will open through different distributors on either side of the Channel. How quickly the UK, Germany and the other hiring markets follow will show how fast Amazon MGM means to stand alone outside North America. The chronology talks will decide how soon its French releases can feed Prime Video.
Sources
- Boxoffice Pro (France), Amazon MGM Studios dates its first French releases, 6 November 2026
- Screen International, Amazon MGM Studios moves into French theatrical distribution, 9 November 2026
- Amazon News, The Thomas Crown Affair: release date, cast and trailer
- Screen International, Amazon MGM Studios' first CineEurope slate presentation, June 2026
- Variety, Amazon MGM partners with Sony for overseas theatrical distribution, 2025
- Deadline, Amazon MGM Studios names Helen Moss head of international theatrical distribution, August 2025
- BFM TV, Prime Video and the media chronology: Arcom amendment, 7 May 2026
- Génération NT, Arcom extends Prime Video amendment to 31 December, 28 July 2026
- European Central Bank euro reference rates, 6 November 2026 (USD 1.1165)