A pair of Canadian distribution companies have lost their service agreements with u.s. majors.

Columbia TriStar Pictures has severed its English Canada service arrangement with the former Cineplex Odeon Corporation, now Odeon Films, and Motion International appears to have lost the Disney deal in Quebec.

‘Our service agreement before was with Cineplex Odeon Films,’ says Columbia TriStar Films Canada gm Michael Skewes. ‘Now, through the sale to Alliance Releasing, there was an opportunity within our agreement at that time to severe our arrangement with them and take over our own distribution services in Canada with the exception of Quebec.’

Before the Cineplex/Sony Loews merger and the necessary sale of cof to Alliance Communications, cof sub-distributed and serviced roughly 30 films a year to independent theaters in English Canada. Columbia TriStar is now handling its own distribution and hiring additional staff, three of whom were on the cof payroll.

However, in Quebec, Skewes says Columbia has inked a deal with Alliance Releasing’s Quebec company Vivafilm to exclusively represent Columbia Tristar in the province.

Skewes says that Columbia entered into the distribution arrangement with Odeon in the first place because the company had a well-positioned infrastructure with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and St. John. He says these offices allowed Columbia films to reach the independent exhibitors but now that Odeon only has offices in Toronto and Montreal, Skewes says Columbia felt it could be better served on its own.

‘When cof was sold, Alliance didn’t feel a need to have a Calgary office anymore,’ says Skewes. ‘There was no one who showed an active interest in handling our product through the type of deal we had with Cineplex.

‘For us, right now, this is a better way to do business.’

Odeon Films president Bryan Gliserman comments, ‘We’ve had a wonderful relationship up until now, and we’re very fond of Columbia TriStar and wish them well as it relates to their efforts.’

Gliserman also confirmed that a ‘nuts and bolts’ service arrangement with Lions Gate Films was still in place for Odeon Films, whereby Odeon undertakes the physical aspects of distributing Lions Gate Films in Canada.

Meanwhile in Quebec, well-placed sources indicate that Motion International’s Quebec theatrical division has is no longer distributing Disney (Buena Vista) films. Montreal’s Equinox, (Compagnie France Film) appears to have scooped the lucrative Quebec output deal.

Equinox film division director Michael Mosca could not be reached for comment at press time, nor could Motion’s Quebec vp of distribution and marketing, Andre Paquette.

Sources say that Disney decided to look elsewhere for its Quebec distribution when Motion signed a deal to distribute the expanding slate of Dreamworks SKG films in Quebec.