Status: 07/06/2021 5:34 p.m.
The industry is raving about the nationwide opening of the cinemas. Almost 830,000 tickets sold were sold in the first four days. Four films each attracted at least 100,000 viewers.
After the nationwide opening of the cinemas last week, almost 830,000 visitors streamed into the cinemas from Thursday to Sunday. Several industry associations were enthusiastic about the response from the public after the month-long closure. “We could hardly have imagined the opening of the cinemas better,” said the chairman of the AG Kino – Gilde, Christian Bräuer. The operator interest group HDF Kino and the Association of Film Distributors (VdF) were equally pleased. “We did not expect a starting weekend with four films in the six-figure audience range alone,” said VdF managing director Johannes Klingsporn.
“Godzilla vs. Kong” in first place
According to the industry, “Godzilla vs. Kong” turned out to be the biggest crowd puller with around 134,000 visitors on the opening weekend. This was followed by the children’s film “Peter Hase 2 – Ein Hase vom Acker” with just under 129,000 and “Conjuring 3: Under the Spell of the Devil” with around 121,500 viewers. As the fourth film, “Catweazle” with Otto Waalkes jumped the 100,000 viewer mark.
In view of the existing requirements and hygiene measures, the industry associations rated the figures as “very good results”. The rules for going to the cinema differ between the federal states. In some cases, distance rules of 1.50 meters must be observed around an occupied seat. In these cases, this means that tickets can only be sold for a quarter of the available seats. VdF managing director Klingsporn expressed the hope “that the capacity utilization will be increased uniformly nationwide to at least 50 percent (one free space next to an occupied space) in the short term.”
Audience figures slumped massively in 2020
After the lockdown at the time, the cinemas reopened for the first time on the first weekend in July in summer 2020. Hygiene and distance rules also applied back then – but according to the AG Kino – Gilde there were not even half as many viewers as this time. In 2020 as a whole, the number of moviegoers in Germany fell by more than two thirds.