A queue of angry fans was expected, remembering the best valves in the series Kaamelott to wait until the room where they were going to discover the long awaited first opus concocted by Alexandre Astier. But none of this this Wednesday morning, the customers of the Mégarama on the right bank of Bordeaux are arriving at a trickle. On the other hand, the previews of the film Kaamelott hit the mark the day before, when the health pass had not yet entered into force for leisure and cultural activities welcoming more than 50 people.
“The day of release from Kaamelot we should have had a lot more people, laments François Garcès, director of Mégarama. The health pass has a dissuasive effect. He says that one in two phone calls in the past week has concerned the health pass. “There are many who turn around because they do not have their results in time for their tests or because they are being vaccinated,” he says. There are so many different cases where people cannot access the room, that it penalizes a little at the entry level. “
Separated families
“We are not vaccinated, since we had the Covid, we had a certificate of recovery that we entered into the application (one of the three options of the health pass). For me, for example, this pass is valid until November 6 and it doesn’t block my freedom, ”explains Laetitia, 46, who came to see Kaamelott with his 20-year-old son Thomas. She says that it is more complicated for her husband who will see the first part of the saga in Paris this evening: “He only had one dose and he has his reminder at the beginning of August. So he went to the pharmacy for an antigen test very quickly yesterday morning. “
Being the only fan of Kaamelott at home, a father shows up alone at the cinema to discover with relish the film by Alexandre Astier. He prefers not to give his first name: “I am a health professional so I have been vaccinated for a long time. It’s true that everything is complicated but you have to adapt. When we see that it starts again, it is better to take additional security measures. If we could no longer have a case of Covid in six months, that would be so good! I would love it. “
Some turn around
“It’s boring! »Says Christine, 69, when asked what she thinks of the health pass. Vaccinated since the beginning of February, she “suffers and runs” especially when she has her granddaughters aged 6 and 7 for the holidays: “I must occupy them”. But when it comes time to pull out her phone to enter the cinema, she has some difficulty finding the pass in the application. “I need the one with a QR code,” emphasizes the cinema employee at the entrance, who scrupulously checks the health passes and the identities of all customers. Several people turn around looking crestfallen, when he explains to them that the health pass is mandatory from this Wednesday.
Some cinemas have chosen to limit their gauges to 49 so as not to impose the presentation of the health pass. “This is not our perspective because necessarily with 17 screens, we have a capacity of 3,000 people”, points out the director of Mégarama. But this week is a test and if it does not welcome more than 50 spectators per room in the morning, it could do otherwise next week. Morning sessions could be accessible without a health pass, by limiting each room to 49 seats.
“We wipe the plasters so we will see how it goes, if we are overwhelmed on the controls maybe that will require hiring, estimates François Garcès. But it is complicated economically because we will make fewer entries while putting more people to work. In short, the cinés are not yet (completely) out of the brambles.