2024-01-21 04:25:00
9.Success in his businesses, success in his loves, an office at the top of a tower, from where he controls his world… Does Pierre-Antoine Capton have the “businessman blues”? He took the Florent course but would not have wanted to be an artist. “I am a very bad actor”, says the man who finds himself exactly where he dreamed of being, the powerful boss of an entertainment empire. Dark suit, white shirt, affable and controlled, surrounded by two communicators, he prepared his formulas. Behind him, the Eiffel Tower and the Invalides dome, the 7th arrondissement under a bright winter sun.
It is in a building on Avenue de Breteuil that “PAC”, 48 years old, has set up the headquarters of Mediawan, a conglomerate of 70 production companies and 1,500 employees, with a turnover of 1 billion euros and twenty thousand hours of programs. The prestigious address allowed him to meet the new Minister of Culture well before her appointment at Rue de Valois. Mayor of the 7th, Rachida Dati was “super efficient when we needed it, for taxi parking problems in front of our building, says Capton. She is in the interaction and complains when necessary.” Does he understand the criticism that resulted from the arrival of the elected LR at the helm of this coveted ministry? ” No ! Rachida Dati is a fighter, and at this moment, we need a minister who defends the virtuous French model. »
Two sharks as godfathers
It is on another continent that the associate of Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse – all three equally – now exercises his talent and his interpersonal skills. After looking for two years for the ideal partner to develop in the United States, Mediawan acquired Plan B, a renowned production company and “ successful » by Brad Pitt. The first interview with the actor takes place on screen, via Zoom. “I was in my house, in Corsica, in July; him, somewhere in the world, remembers the one who, after several years of private lessons, can now converse in English. Our teams were participating in the conversation. I logged in a little late to avoid being face to face with him. When I saw his face, it did something to me! I meet a lot of personalities but Brad Pitt is different…” The charm of the sex symbol operates on the Frenchy of Normandy: “Super friendly, extremely cultured, passionate about France, a complete movie buff. »
“I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles to understand the ecosystem, he continues. Everyone told me that the reference is Brad Pitt and his two associates, the best producers in Hollywood. They were looking to develop in Europe, they launched a “process” to find partners. » Mediawan wins the bet and « marriage” is held in a Washington law firm, in December 2022. Contracts signed, joint projects follow one another, the series The Three-Body Problem next March on Netflix, the biopic of Bob Marley and Beetlejuice 2 by Tim Burton soon in the cinema, a film on Formula 1 with Brad Pitt in the credits currently being filmed… In California, Capton found two sharks as godfathers, ultra-influential billionaires with breathtaking careers, Bryan Lourd, president of the largest American talent agency, CAA (recently bought by the Pinault family), and Henry Kravis, maestro of Wall Street and patron of the Republican Party. “Bryan Lourd took me under his wing, confides Capton. We have a friendly relationship, I know I can count on him. »
In Beverly Hills, this entourage allows many entries, but it insists: “We don’t want to become American. It’s about finding the best creative talent and giving them access to the United States, where funding and recognition are greater. This is a key market. » He spends a week a month in LA, in hotels, stays “tiring” during which he met studio bosses, with this observation: “There is less jealousy there, more kindness. »
What he owes his mother
In France, he assures, his rise in the world of television, cinema, series and animation has aroused the distrust of some. “It took us four years to be accepted and understood. Our presence in several countries may raise questions among certain unions unfamiliar with the model we have created. » “We will not release 200 films per year”, he assures. Before sliding: “This year, our producers are responsible for 15% of the French box office,” with notably The three Musketeers, I will always see your faces et On the black paths. Capton, who ensures that he watches all Mediawan-labelled programs, promises a triumph in 2024 for Gilles Lellouche’s new production, Love phew.
His success, he says, is down to his taste for content, not his knowledge of finance. It tells of a youth in Trou-ville-sur-Mer nourished by television and cinema, and a desire today to maintain a popular taste to please as many people as possible and generate subscriptions on the platforms. Create brands, develop them, export them, like the biggest French success on Netflix, Miraculous, a cartoon available in particularly lucrative merchandising products, the jewel of the Mediawan stable. Television, the primary profession of our mogul national, remains according to him a medium of the future for sporting or live news events. He continues to spend time behind the scenes C to you, its first and greatest success, welcomes the most prestigious guests and does not hesitate to go into the smallest details, as during a recent broadcast where the dinner table was missing a plate and cutlery to serve a galette from kings. Enough to make him angry.
Mediawan’s successes
“C à vous”, “C dans l’air” and “C l’hebdo”, on France 5
SERIES
“Ten percent”, “HPI”, “Clem”, “Alice Nevers”, “Josephine, guardian angel”
DOCUMENTARIES
“Apocalypse”, “Grégory”, “Orelsan”, “Women and the Assassin”
MOVIE THEATER
“Bac Nord”, “November”, “Women Talking”, “Dad or Mom”, “The First Name”
The competition between the three evening talk shows – C to you, Daily et Do not touch My TV – would be less ferocious than in their beginnings, according to him. “We are each in our own swimming lane, our targets are different. Ours touches maybe the older ones but that doesn’t bother me at all. We are becoming more and more powerful! » In 2020, the Élysée informed him that he would be decorated with the Legion of Honor. The man in a hurry took three years to organize the award ceremony. It is the disappearance of his father, a former driving school instructor, and the advanced age of his mother, a hairdresser, which pushes him in 2023 to finally issue the invitations. Emotional sequence when he accompanies the old lady with such a modest past under the gold of the Republic. “I owe him a lot, relates the son. It was she who allowed me, at 17, to come to Paris, paying me a year’s rent so that I could start in this profession. » The Élysée, he, the boss of the small screen, knows a little.
To the White House
In 2017, with the companies Black Dynamite and Troisième Œil, he produced the documentary dedicated to candidate Macron, a hit with audiences the day after the election. He has just relaunched the idea, again with Third Eye, for a doc this time focused on the president’s international policy. Two cameramen have been following Emmanuel Macron for months. “We already have incredible sequences, he says. This will undoubtedly be one of the greatest political documentaries ever seen. » Show-off? From time to time, and he accepts it. Like the day he was invited to a state visit to the White House. With him, in particular, the friend Xavier Niel and the lifelong friend, Florian Zeller, the playwright with two Oscars. “Frankly it was rewarding, we were proud,” he said, refusing to shy away from his pleasure. The money – colossal – that he earns today with Mediawan serves other bets.
Here he is owner of the Stade Malherbe, the Caen football team that he supported when he was younger, of the Flaubert, a charming hotel on the Trouville seafront, and shareholder of the Parisian restaurant Loulou. Poker games with friends? It’s over, he assures us. “My luxury is spending time with my children. » He cites in his professional galaxy the president of the Canal+ group, Maxime Saada, as well as Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, director of programs at France Télévisions, essential allies for his success. With Delphine Ernotte, the general director, he has lunch two to three times a year. He praises her hard work, her ability to impose herself in a man’s world. His American dream thrills him but Pierre-Antoine Capton underlines the modernity of France in audiovisual matters, the strength of television channels purposely transformed with the arrival of platforms and the lead taken over other European countries. A bit chauvinistic, but above all grateful to the country which allowed him so much ambition. The interview ends, PAC pours himself a coffee. Big smile. It’s certain, this businessman doesn’t have the blues.
His first circle
Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse
It was with them that Pierre-Antoine Capton founded Mediawan in December 2015. He cites Xavier Niel, self-taught like him, among the most important meetings of his professional life. The three men own in equal shares the group which has become the leading European audiovisual production, distribution and publishing studio, present in eleven countries and boasting a turnover of 1 billion euros.
Alessandra Sublet
In 2009, at the launch of C à vous, she was the first woman appointed to lead a television show on the “access prime time” slot, between 6 and 9 p.m.
“It wasn’t obvious at the time,” recalls Pierre-Antoine Capton. Sublet
left the presentation of the 5 talk show in 2013, remaining friends with her former producer until today.
Brad Pitt
The American actor is now a 5% shareholder in Mediawan, while the production company Plan B, which he co-chairs, has belonged to Mediawan since December 2022. The “marriage” between the Hollywood star and the Parisian producer took place in Washington, in a law firm, the day after President Macron’s state visit to the White House to which Pierre-Antoine Capton was invited.
Anne-Élisabeth Lemoine
With “Babeth”, recruited in 2014 to first be the replacement for Anne-Sophie Lapix, C à vous knows its best audiences. Pierre-Antoine Capton cites the record of 3 million viewers during the special show filmed live at the Élysée Palace on December 20, 2023. When rumors say she is up for hosting the TF1 morning news, the producer asks frankly. “She immediately denied it,” he told us. And I have no reason not to believe her. »
Florian Zeller
They knew each other in their young years, long before the amazing successes and the trips to California. At that time, the budding businessman supported the promising playwright. Together, they experience several failures and then share the successes, without ever ending their friendship.
Alexandra Bikialo
Pierre-Antoine Capton’s wife and mother of his children, director of a yoga studio in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, chairs the foundation they created together. Draw Me a Childhood helps children in precarious situations. The couple married in Trouville in 2013, with Florian Zeller and Alessandra Sublet as witnesses.
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