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A third less: cinemas are still missing viewers
Moviegoers sit at the premiere of the film ‘Come with me into the cinema – The Gregors’ with masks and distance in the Delphi Film Palace in Berlin. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
At the beginning of the pandemic, there were fears that many cinemas would close permanently. But there was no cinema death thanks to aid money. What does autumn bring now? Will the World Cup become a competitive blockbuster?
With the onset of the pandemic, many people feared for the cinema landscape. For months, the screens in Germany stayed dark and people stayed at home. Two and a half years later, it is evident that visitors have returned to the cinema.
But business is still not what it used to be. Around 33.2 million tickets were sold in the first half of 2022, as the Film Funding Agency (FFA) in Berlin announced on Thursday.
That is many times more than a year earlier – at that time movie theaters were largely closed due to the corona virus – but there are still around 20 million fewer tickets than before the crisis. According to statistics, ticket sales are around 38 percent below those of the first half of 2019, and sales are still around a third lower at 305.7 million euros.
Ticket prices increased
“At first glance, these are bad numbers, but there is hope,” said FFA board member Peter Dinges. “While we had significant losses in ticket sales from January to May compared to 2019, we were even able to achieve a small increase of 2.3 percent in June. Sales even increased by 14.2 percent in June.” This is partly due to higher ticket prices.
According to statistics, going to the cinema has become a little more expensive. Before the start of the pandemic, a ticket cost an average of 8.60 euros in the first half of 2019 – in the first half of 2022 it was an average of 9.21 euros. In the meantime the prices had dropped a bit. In larger cinemas, the cinema ticket costs a little more on average than in cinemas with fewer screens. Will prices continue to rise? And what does autumn bring?
The chairwoman of the HDF cinema association, Christine Berg, sees several sticking points. For one thing, she’s happy. “Last year we were pronounced dead – and we got over 60 percent of the visitors back,” she said. There is still room for improvement, but the cinema people are happy that they have come this far.
The sequels to “Fantastic Beasts”, “Top Gun” and “Doctor Strange” did particularly well. “As soon as there are big films, people come,” said Berg. Smaller films, on the other hand, are rather poorly attended at the moment. “This phenomenon is visible everywhere,” said Berg, referring to theaters and opera houses with which one is in contact.
Cinema festival planned for September
One reason for this is certainly that “people want to catch up a lot at the moment,” said Berg. People wanted to go to amusement parks, they wanted to eat out, meet friends, but also to the opera, the theater, the cinema. “And then you only ever watch the highlight of what you just noticed.” Now it’s about getting people excited again, also for the small film. The industry also relies on a cinema festival for this. On September 10th and 11th, the performances in hundreds of cinemas should only cost five euros.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was feared that many cinemas would close permanently. That doesn’t show up in the statistics. “For the time being, we can say with relief that the cinema industry has survived the pandemic quite well so far,” said Dinges. The state aid would have worked well. It remains to be seen how things will continue after the aid has expired.
If you ask Berg why there was no cinema death, she argues with two points. On the one hand, politicians set certain levers in motion in good time. On the other hand, you have to look at the history of the cinemas. Many cinemas are family businesses over generations. You don’t just give that up, you’re more likely to take out a mortgage on the house.
uncertainties for the industry
Berg sees several uncertainties in the coming months. “It will now be a difficult autumn and a difficult winter.” On the one hand, the bridging aid had expired. “And on top of that, people have less money in their pockets. We don’t know what restrictions we’re going to face in relation to Corona. And – you shouldn’t underestimate that either: We have a football World Cup coming up in November and December .”
The cold months are actually the most important for the cinema business. When it’s drizzling outside, many are more drawn to the cinema than on mild summer evenings. Now the World Cup is taking place in Qatar. They all didn’t know how people would react to it, said Berg. Added to this is the possible gas supply crisis. The cinema industry must also consider how it can save energy.