CHAPTER 2 – PATHE FILMS – M6 – Jérôme Prébois
Pierre Niney, here in “The Count of Monte Cristo”, at the cinema on Friday June 28.
CINEMA – Don’t go to the cinema this Wednesday hoping to see the count of Monte Cristo on display. And for good reason, he won’t be there. The film arrives on our screens this Friday, June 28, as recalled by Pierre Niney, who plays Edmond Dantès in the new adaptation of the novel by Alexandre Dumas.
“ There are several reasons for this. The first is that the cinema festival is coming this Sunday. People will be able to benefit from it for 5 euros “, explained the 35-year-old actor on the set of Quotidien this Monday, June 24, specifying that this can thus allow ” an even wider audience ” to ” embark on this adventure “.
As Pierre Niney reminded us, all sessions are 5 euros for everyone throughout the duration of the festivities, which extend over four days until Wednesday July 3.
The Cinema Festival, which is organizing its 39th edition this year, is a period favored by many spectators, as evidenced by the peaks in theater attendance during this period. In 2022, a year of crisis for French cinemas, 3.2 million admissions were totaled between July 3 and 6. This was more than in pre-pandemic times.
The idea of going out the count of Monte Cristo at this moment is a strategic choice, but not unprecedented. As pointed out this CNC article, films used to arrive on our screens on Fridays at the time to give projectionists time to check all the reels they had received during the week. The spectators used to go to the cinema on Sunday, the only day on which they did not work.
It was only during the 1930s that Pathé decided to schedule releases on Thursdays, then Wednesdays, to allow films to benefit from word of mouth before the weekend arrived. In connection with the young people’s day off in the middle of the week, the other cinemas followed. And even if some, like Pathé boss Jérôme Seydoux, would today like to return to Friday (like in the United States), Wednesday has remained a tradition.
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