Movie
Cinema Association: Audiences are slowly returning
According to the cinema association, 73.5 million tickets were sold in 2022. photo
© Fabian Sommer/dpa
The corona pandemic has caused problems for cinemas in Germany. But gradually the places are filling up again. Especially the new “Avatar” film is currently attracting a lot of audience.
According to industry associations, cinemas in Germany are increasingly filling up again, thanks in part to films like “Avatar: The Way of Water”. “Even if we are still a long way from the figures for 2019, we are in a much better position compared to 2021,” said Christine Berg, board member of HDF Kino, on Friday. “Our audience is slowly returning and is ready to rediscover cinema as a place of experience and culture.”
HDF cinema and the Association of Film Distributors (VdF) reported that 73.5 million tickets were sold last year, citing an industry analysis service. That was significantly more than in 2021 (+83 percent), but still less than in 2019 before the pandemic began (-33 percent). Ticket sales were 694 million euros, down 28 percent compared to 2019.
“The restrictions imposed by the pandemic and the fact that the number of visitors was still noticeably restrained even after the restrictions had expired have meant that the cinema market is still below the level of 2019 compared to the previous year, despite encouraging signs of recovery,” the statement said.
Currently, the new “Avatar” film brings a lot of audience. According to the association, more than six million tickets have already been sold. But films such as “Räuber Hotzenplotz”, “Puss in Boots 2” and “Oskar’s Dress” continued to post good figures and with restarts such as “Operation Fortune” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” delivered extremely positive results. “With almost 2.18 million tickets sold, last weekend was the best cinema weekend since the pandemic began.”