A handful of people get lost in the hall. Saturday night. Like greasy popcorn, part of the film experience is that the red-covered cinema seats are all occupied, that horror films make everyone twitch and tearjerkers sniffle right and left. But Markus Wenzl, operator of the “Kinop”, cinema in Penzberg (Weilheim-Schongau district), is happy when the number of visitors on Saturday evenings this summer is in double digits. The community experience is not far away. “It’s about survival,” says Wenzl about the future of his small film theater with two halls. Financially, he moves from one film to the next. The Eberhof thriller “Guglhupfgeschwader” will be in cinemas in August. “If it also flops, then…” Wenzl falls silent at the end of the phone.
The cinema market collapsed by almost two thirds between 2019 and 2021, from 20 million tickets sold in Bavaria to just over seven million. Many Bavarian cinemas have kept their heads above water with the Corona aid money. The cinemas were in lockdown for almost twelve months, in the second half of 2021 they were allowed to reopen under certain conditions, but even after the measures were lifted in April, the number of visitors did not climb back to a pre-pandemic normal state. The small arthouse cinemas in Bavaria in particular are running out of air.
The cinemas have had to survive summer slumps for years
Juli Marie Vesper operates four cinemas in Passau, from the large Cineplex on Nibelungenplatz to the award-winning art house gem, the Scharfrichterhaus in the old town. “The cinemas have had to survive summer slumps for years,” says Vesper. The problem is that “culture has been the pawn sacrifice of the Corona measures for two winters now”. At times, capacity was limited to 25 percent, the 2-G-Plus rule and the obligation to wear masks suddenly applied to the cinemas. The Scharfrichterhaus, already a small hall, could not be operated under these conditions. After the enormous sales losses of the last few years, the smaller cinemas in particular could no longer fall back on any reserves. The visitors returned very hesitantly, even now in the summer their cinemas recorded losses of 35 percent compared to 2019.
In the corona pandemic, many cinemas remained completely empty. Now the visitors come back very hesitantly.
(Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa)
Many art house cinemas have dedicated themselves to the art house sector for decades. With blockbusters bringing in more money, financial hardship is now pushing them into the mainstream. Diana Linz runs the Lichtspiel and the Odeon in Bamberg with Gerrit Zachrich. “The claims of blockbuster distributors are about supplanting art house,” says Linz. The blockbusters often have to be shown for three to four weeks at a time, in the largest hall and ideally all day. At the end of June, the Lichtspiel Kino celebrated the Charles Bukowski Festival on the occasion of the poet’s 100th birthday. Documentaries and films were shown, the poet’s daughter traveled from the USA and Diana Linz served the guests Bukowski’s favorite drink: Vodka 7. It’s events like this that the cinema operator enjoys. Not playing blockbusters in a continuous loop.
In the Odeon and in the Lichtspiel, the occupancy rate is lower than in previous years. In the summer of 2021, people were swept back into the cinemas in a noticeable wave of solidarity, and there was nothing left of that this year. “It’s a different mood. People think about the war and about austerity, but not about the cinemas.” With small additional offers such as the children’s cinema from the Lichtspiel or open-air cinema in Penzberg, the small film theaters are trying to save a cinema winter free of corona measures, they hope. Before the light show switched to a pure blockbuster program, Diana Linz would close the cinema. But they are not at that point yet.
After 80 years, a family business had to close in Donauwörth
The same fate befell the Cinedrom in Donauwörth (Donau-Ries district) in April. After 80 years of family business, the owner Prisca Färber had to close the cinema. On Instagram, she justifies the end with financial problems caused by the pandemic and water damage. In addition, the film distributors would sometimes supply the streaming services and cinemas at the same time, “the overall situation has changed completely,” writes Färber.
A study by the cinema associations HDF Kino and AG Kino-Gilde from the beginning of July shows the consequences of the pandemic for the industry and necessary counter-strategies. 40 percent of the cinemas had to postpone upcoming investments in the pandemic. In order for the industry to remain future-proof in terms of technology, comfort and ambience, 375 million euros would have to be invested. The weakened operators would not be able to cope without support programs and better political framework conditions.
Everyone was dependent on the aid money in recent years, whether it was a niche cinema or the Cinecitta in Nuremberg. The multiplex has almost 5,000 seats in 23 halls. “We still exist, but only thanks to the help of the Free State and the Ministry of Economics,” says Managing Director Wolfram Weber. The situation has stabilized again in the second largest cinema in Germany. The halls were more than 80 percent full in April, and the number of visitors is currently normal for the warm months. On a good summer evening, 6,000 tickets are sold at Cinecitta, and up to 10,000 in winter. “The prospects are good and so are the blockbusters,” says Weber. Weber also sees the direct comparison to the weak in the industry. He also manages the Meisengeige and Metropolis arthouse cinemas in Nuremberg, where visitors are only very hesitant to return.
Whether the cinemas are a dying species was an issue even before the pandemic. Despite all the pessimism, some operators are not losing hope. “The cinema is and will remain the PR machine,” says Weber. “Promoting films only via streaming services will not work.” The Vesper family from Passau has been running cinemas in Lower Bavaria since 1927. “When the color television was invented, it was said that the cinema was dead,” says Juli Marie Vesper. “Then came videocassettes and DVDs. Again, it was said that the cinema was dead. Now it’s the streaming services. It’s about the whole community experience. And that will come back.”