The mk2 group will open its capital to the public to modernize its rooms and create a museum

The independent cinema group mk2 will, for the first time, open its capital to the public in order to finance the transformation of one of its multiplexes in Paris and to create a museum, it announced on Tuesday June 9. Mk2, which manages the first circuit of arthouse cinemas in France, wishes to raise between 2.5 and 5 million euros to transform the mk2 Bibliothèque cinema, the third largest complex in the capital with 20 screens.

The objective is to completely renovate its rooms with new image and sound equipment, and new seats. This phase, which will end in September, will be followed by another beginning in 2027 with the opening of a museum dedicated to visual arts, “thought of as a creative innovation laboratory” for French and international artists, mk2 general director Elisha Karmitz told AFP. In the summer of 2027, the group should also open a hotel-cinema in the same location, its second in Paris.

The purchase of shares will be possible from 100 euros, “without voting rights, with promised remuneration of 4% to 8% per year depending on the performance of mk2 cinemas”says the group. The capital will then be repurchased after five years, he guarantees. Owned solely by the Karmitz family since its creation in 1974, mk2 is a major player in independent cinema in Europe with an annual turnover of around 100 million euros.

The subsidiary responsible for operating the cinemas accounts for approximately a third of this total, with 33.8 million in annual turnover. It owns 26 cinemas in Paris and Spain but also deals with the production and distribution of films, particularly arthouse cinema.