Constantin Film

Constantin Film AG
Privately held company
Industry Film production
Founded Frankfurt, Germany (April 1, 1950)
Founder Waldfried Barthel
Preben Philipsen
Headquarters Munich, Germany
Key people
 Martin Moszkowicz
Bernd Eichinger (†2011)
Fred Kogel
Revenue 214,91 Mio. € (2010)
Owner Highlight Communications (FWB: HLG)
Number of employees
 422 (Dezember 2010)
Website www.constantin-film.de

Constantin Film AG is a German film production and film distribution company, based in Munich, Germany.

History

The name of Constantin Film has stood for quality and success for more than 30 years and has made a crucial contribution to the development and renown of the German film both at home and abroad. From the foundation of the company by Bernd Eichinger in 1977 to its integration into the media group Constantin Medien AG in 2009, Constantin Film has established itself as the most successful independent production and distribution company in the German media landscape and constantly works on a level with the major US studios.

Constantin Film has 23 of the Top 50 German blockbusters of the last 20 years and released the three most successful German films since reunification in 1990 with Manitou's Shoe (more than 11.7 million viewers), Dreamship Surprise - Period 1 (9 million) and Suck me Shakespeer (7.3 million).

Founded by Bernd Eichinger as Neue Constantin Film in 1977, it developed into the first German film distributor with its own production company in just six years, whose production activities extended to the international market. In 1986, the Kirch Group (at the time Europe's biggest film and TV licence traders) acquired a minority stake in Neue Constantin Film.

In the course of the following years, Constantin Film fixed its position on the international movie market by establishing various production subsidiaries across Europe, amongst other things, and started to develop a new pillar in TV production with service production activities on a licence basis (an innovation on what had been the usual order basis up to that point) in 1996. At the end of the nineties, Constantin Film acquired majority stakes in the film production companies Olga Film GmbH, Engram Pictures and MOOVIE GmbH. In September 1999 the company then floated on the German stock market as Constantin Film AG; Deutsche Börse placed the Constantin Film share on the selection index Nemax 50 in March 2000.

Constantin Film AG founded Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH over the next few years, with producer Christian Becker and his team. The Swiss Highlight Communications AG (a strategy and finance holding with the operative segments of film and sports and event marketing) acquired 23 percent of the capital stock of Constantin Film AG from Kirch Beteiligungs GmbH und Co. KG and from diversified holdings for the first time in 2002. In 2003, the board of Constantin Film AG embarked on a new strategic path for the company: the traditional business areas of production and distribution were expanded to include the three areas of licence trading, home entertainment exploitation and increased TV service production (especially TV entertainment). Constantin Film AG also acquired 61 percent of the shares in KirchMedia Entertainment GmbH (now renamed Constantin Entertainment GmbH), one of the market leaders in German show and entertainment production. The stake was increased to 100 percent in 2005.

At the end of 2009, the listing of Constantin Film AG expired; all the shares were transferred to Highlight Communications after a squeeze-out. Constantin Film AG, as part of Highlight Communications AG, now belongs to the media group Constantin Medien AG, which emerged from the former EM. Sport Medien AG and has had its new name since the beginning of 2009. The company encompasses the four business areas of sports (Sport1, LIGA total!, Sport1.de, Plazamedia and Creation Club), film (Constantin Film, Constantin Entertainment and Rainbow Home Entertainment), sports and event marketing (Team Holding AG) and other (holding activities).

Production

Constantin Film has brought many film hits to the big screen in the course of its company history. The most successful licence titles and internal or co-productions in Germany include (in terms of numbers of viewers) The Never Ending Story (approx. 5 million), The Name of the Rose (5.9 million), Das Geisterhaus (nearly 4 million), Dances With Wolves (nearly 6.8 million), Seven (more than 2.8 million), The Sixth Sense (more than 4 million), Maybe... Maybe Not (more than 6.6 million), Werner - Beinhart (more than 4.9 million), Rossini (more than 3.2 million), Ballermann 6 (more than 2.4 million), Asterix & Obelix vs. Caesar (nearly 3.6 million), Werner – Volles Rooäää!!! (nearly 2.8 million), American Pie (more than 6 million viewers, the biggest film of 2000), Downfall (more than 4.6 million viewers. Oscar®-nominated), Perfume - The Story of a Murderer (nearly 5.6 million), The Baader-Meinhof Complex (more than 2.4 million), Manitou's Shoe (the most successful German film ever with more than 11.7 million viewers), Dreamship Surprise – Period 1 (9 million), Lissi and the Wild Emperor (more than 2.2 million), Vicky the Viking (nearly 5 million), Nowhere in Africa (1.66 million viewers. Oscar® winner for "Best Foreign Language Film" in 2003), The Wave (more than 2.5 Mio), Hui Buh (more than 2 million), The White Massai (more than 2.2. million), Männersache (1.8 million), Horst Schlämmer – Isch kandidiere! (1.35 million), Maria, He Doesn't Like It (1.3 million), Pope Joan (2.3 million), The Flying Classroom (more than 1.9 million), Bibi Blocksberg (more than 2.2 million), the Wild Chicks series (3.2 million), Girls on Top (nearly 1.8 million), Türkisch für Anfänger (2.4 million), Suck me Shakespeer (7.3 million) and the international self-production Resident Evil (3.6 million viewers), which has in the meantime developed into one the world's most successful franchises.

After the great success of Türkisch für Anfänger in 2012 (nearly 2.4 million visitors), the Constantin subsidiary Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH, together with the director and author Bora Dagtekin and producer Lena Schömann and their team, landed the biggest German hit of 2013 too: the school comedy Suck me Shakespeer, starring Elyas M’Barek and Karoline Herfurth, thrilled an incredible 7.3 million viewers and became a firm audience favourite in a very short time. This makes Suck me Shakespeer the most successful school film in the history of the genre and also advanced to Number 2 in the most successful German films of all time (in sales). In terms of viewers the comedy is Number 3 on the list of most successful German films since reunification (1990-2014) and Number 4 on the all-time list (since 1968). And Suck me Shakespeer also continues to break all records in the home entertainment area: it has sold more than 1.2 million DVDs and Blu-rays and digital transactions have now also passed the one million mark. This means that Suck me Shakespeer is the most successful digitally marketed film in Germany to date. Constantin Film will be bringing the second part of the comedy to cinemas on 10 September 2015.

Successful films of 2014 include the third part of the popular Famous Five series, The Hundred-Foot Journey, starring the grande dame of cinema, Helen Mirren, and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, the Bavarian crime comedy Winterkartoffelknödel based on the novel by Rita Falk and the romantic comedy Love, Rosie by director Christian Ditter, based on the novel by Cecelia Ahern. In addition to these bestseller adaptations cinemagoers flocked to see the comedy Männerhort and the documentary The Team about the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

The movie year of 2015 started with Sönke Wortmann's successful comedy Frau Müller muss weg, in which an elementary school is turned into a fighting arena of parental vanities. The second part of the equestrian adventure Ostwind (directed by Katja von Garnier) will finally give us a reunion with Mika and Ostwind at Gut Kaltenbach from 14 May onwards, and a week later the comedy Abschussfahrt takes us off on a wild class outing in which director Tim Trachte has his young protagonists experience an absolutely crazy night in Prague. The next film in the worldwide hit blockbuster series Fantastic Four (release date 6 August) will guarantee a summer of suspense. Further highlights of this year's distribution slate are the sequel to Bora Dagtekin's cult comedy Suck me Shakespeer (release date 10 September) and the film adaptation of the best-selling satire Er ist wieder da (release date 8 October), directed by David Wnendt.

List of films produced by Constantin Film Production GmbH

External links