Status: 01/14/2022 1:46 p.m
Even in the second year of Corona, many cinemas remained empty: German cinemas suffered severe losses in 2021. Capacity restrictions and regional closures are troubling the industry.
Despite vaccinations, tests and 2G or even 2G-Plus, cinemas suffer from a lack of visitors. In the past year, with 40.4 million tickets, the cinemas recorded an 18 percent increase in visitors compared to 2020, as the Main Association of German Film Theaters (HDF Kino) and the Association of Film Distributors (VdF) announced today. Compared to the last regular year of comparison, 2019, they had to accept a decline of 63 percent.
Successful summer months
According to the associations, the complete closure of the cinemas in the spring lockdown and the tightening of the pandemic rules on 2G or 2G-Plus have left their mark. Although the opening of the cinemas in the summer provided some relaxation, the drop in visitors is clear.
“Unfortunately, after the good reopening on July 1st, the cinemas were slowed down again in many places in the second half of the year,” says Christine Berg, CEO of HDF Kino. In particular, the new James Bond film “No Time to Die” attracted many viewers. In the meantime, around six million people had seen it in the cinema, it was said. Around three million people have watched the new Spider-Man film “No Way Home” so far.
Two German films crack the one million visitor mark
The associations also point out that in the six months in which cinemas were open again across Germany in 2021, eight films alone broke the million visitor mark, including two German films with “Die Schule der Zauberen Tiere” and “Kaiserschmarrndrama”.
“Many newcomers could therefore only be evaluated very inadequately, which is shown by the fact that the eight millionaire visitors accounted for 44 percent of the total annual ticket sales,” says Berg.