OMG. WOW. After reading this, I have no sympathies whatsoever for Besson and Europacorp. They killed their own movie. When a big hollywood studio like FOX or UNIVERSAL is interested in distributing it, you go with either one. Europacorp would have found a partner later anyways without needing to sacrifice Valerian.
Everything in that article is exactly what I had been saying, i.e. this needed to release in France first in order to build positive buzz before releasing in US & Canada.
So many assinine decisions. Everyone was on substance it seems.