By Variety | Created at 2026-06-10 16:17:10 | Updated at 2026-06-11 21:04:58
1 day ago
French cinema group MK2 – the family-owned company which had five movies in competition at Cannes and won four prizes — is opening its capital to the public for the first time in its 52-year history.
Led by brothers Nathanaël and Elisha Karmitz, the company runs a revered arthouse exhibition chain across Paris and has launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at financing an ambitious overhaul of its flagship MK2 Bibliothèque multiplex in the French capital.
MK2 is seeking to raise up to €5 million ($5.8 million) from the public through a campaign launched on investment platform Lita to help bankroll the modernization and expansion of the MK2 Bibliothèque, a 20-screen complex in the 13th arrondissement which is believed to rank as Paris’ third largest movie theater.
The fundraising campaign will allow members of the public to invest in MK2 Cinemas from as little as €100 through non-voting shares. Investors will be eligible for annual returns ranging from 4% to 8%, depending on the company’s performance, with a guaranteed buyback of the shares after five years.
The project comes as exhibitors across Europe continue investing in premium cinema experiences and alternative cultural offerings in an effort to attract audiences and diversify revenue streams beyond traditional moviegoing. In France, Pathé, which welcomed shipping tycoon Rodolphe Saadé as its new shareholder with a 20-percent stake in 2024, recently unveiled the luxury Pathé Palace cinema in central Paris. MK2, meanwhile, is betting on a broader transformation of its flagship site to create what Elisha Karmitz calls a “cultureplex.” As such, the venue is being upgraded with new image and sound technologies, redesigned interiors and expanded cultural offerings.
As part of the revamping plans, MK2 looks to open a museum featuring five exhibition galleries in early 2027, followed by a second cinema-themed hotel in summer 2027. For the last year or so, the banner has already been hosting jam-packed masterclasses with high-profile filmmakers, talent and authors, from “The Secret Agent” helmer Kleber Mendonça Filho to Juliette Binoche and Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British-American novelist best known for “The Satanic Verses,” an 1988 novel whose perceived blasphemous portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad prompted Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his death. MK2 has also been ahead of the curve in terms of youths-skewing alternative cinema experiences such as the programming of “Kaizen,” a documentary that followed YouTube star Inoxtag climbing the Mount Everest.
Speaking to Variety, Elisha Karmitz said the crowdfunding initiative is meant to involve audiences more directly in the future growth of MK2 while retaining full control over editorial strategy and preserving its family ownership.
The vision underpinning the project reflects Karmitz’s belief that cinemas should serve as antidotes to digital isolation. In a recent speech at HEC Paris, he cited Jean-Luc Godard’s famous observation that “when you go to the cinema, you raise your head; when you watch television, you lower it,” arguing that the moviegoing experience encourages audiences to actively engage with art rather than surrender to the passive consumption of algorithm-driven content.
“Today, we feel there is a very strong desire for people to recreate a sense of community together,” Karmitz said. “We believe MK2 cinemas are places that allow people to come together around a story, helping to develop their social well-being and, through that, their humanity. That is absolutely essential.”
Founded by Marin Karmitz in 1974, MK2 has evolved into an integrated entertainment group spanning production, distribution, international sales, theatrical exhibition, hospitality and cultural experiences spearheaded by his sons, Nathanael and Elisha. Some of the banner’s most successful cultural initiatives include Cinema Paradiso, a festival dedicated to movies, food and clubbing which has been housed at some of Paris’ most prestigious venues, from the Grand Palais to the Louvre. The next edition of the festival will kick off on July 1 at the Louvre with prestigious filmmakers in attendance, including Wes Anderson.
MK2 Films, whose international sales division is headed by Irish-born executive Fionnuala Jamison, has had an impressive track record at the Cannes Film Festival and at the Oscars in recent years, with movies such as Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Secret Agent” and “Sentimental Value.” This year, the company had 11 movies at the festival and five in competition, including Andreï Zviaguintsev’s “Minotaur” which won the Grand Prize and Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Camera d’Or winning “Ben’Imana.”
