"That'll be it in a few months": Hollywood lets the cinemas down

Cinemas have been opening their curtains again since May. With empty rooms, because of the distance rules, they are only allowed to sell a quarter of their tickets. With the postponement of the new Bond film, they lose a lot of money again. They could help against the corona blues, especially in winter.

At the beginning of October it is shaking in the cinema world: The new James Bond film is postponed for the second time due to the Corona crisis. Two days later the lights go out at Cineworld and the world's second largest cinema chain is temporarily closing all cinemas. The curtains are closed in 536 movie theaters in the USA and 127 in Great Britain. Around 45,000 people lose their jobs.

Also Christian Bräuer is disappointed that 007 won't clean up the big screens until April at the earliest. "It would have worked well for us, the last Bond films have shown that," says the head of the Yorck cinema group in Berlin on the ntv podcast "Wieder Was Learned". Bond is not hardcore art house, but an absolute cult figure. "Such titles, which are known not only by fans, are needed because other people perceive cinema and see trailers for films that do not have a large marketing budget and are discussed up and down in the media."

The Yorck Kinogruppe will probably lose a six-figure sum as a result of the postponement. This cannot be put into precise figures because instead of "James Bond" other films are shown in the 14 small Berlin cinemas in November and December. However, without Daniel Craig in the lead role and worldwide marketing campaign. And without the Cineworld cinemas. Distributors can already get the income from a good 650 cinemas in the USA and Great Britain out of their heads.

"Some see this as an opportunity"

To make matters worse, only a few paying spectators are allowed into the movie theaters that are still open. Distance rules also apply there due to the coronavirus. A chain of unfortunate circumstances that led to Disney recently deciding to forego cinema revenues and to publish its new film "Mulan" directly on its own streaming platform.

For many cinemas this was also a setback, "but complaining does not help," says Christian Bräuer, who is also chairman of the AG Kino, the association of German film art theaters. He wants to make a virtue out of necessity and say to other distributors: Hey, take the opportunity. Now is the time for German and European films. "Some producers and distributors see this as an opportunity," says the cinema operator. "Some are quite satisfied because there is less competition, especially from Hollywood blockbusters."

Constantin Film wants to use this new niche among others. After the Cineworld quake, the well-known distributor announced that it would be bringing three films to theaters this year that were supposed to start later. But this gesture doesn't solve the real problem: the coronavirus.

"The reserves have been used up"

In 12 out of 16 federal states, a minimum distance of 1.50 meters also applies in cinemas. For the Yorck cinema group, this means that they can only sell 20 to 25 percent of the tickets for each film. "Everyone can work out what that means," says Christian Bräuer. "If you were to say that a restaurant can only occupy two out of ten tables, it cannot work economically." In the Berlin chain alone, the losses without compensation payments are well into the seven-digit range.

Despite the restrictions, the Yorck cinema group currently counts almost 60 percent of the visitors from the previous year. And is even satisfied with it, because most of the films are sold out. That shows that people have confidence in the cinemas, says Bräuer.

Christian Bräuer is managing director of the Yorck Kinogruppe, chairman of the AG Kino and president of the Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai (CICAE).

(Photo: picture alliance / dpa)

The sudden shutdown in March left an even deeper mark across the industry. On average, it is around 70 percent below the figures in the same period of the previous year – both in terms of viewers and box office results, says Christine Berg, CEO of the Hauptverband Deutscher Filmtheater (HDF), the largest German cinema association. So far, she is aware of two bankruptcies in Germany. And the longer the situation stays as it is, the more it becomes.

"One thing is clear, and that applies to all cinemas: If there is no government funding, the independent cinemas hold out for a few months and then that's it," says Christian Bräuer. "The reserves have been used up. That means we are dependent on funding."

Low aerosol exposure

But the industry has hope. Because despite all the restrictions, there are so far no signs that people have lost interest in the cinema. And there's no evidence that cinemas could be virus-spreaders, either. The operators are not surprised. They refer to their powerful ventilation systems and various reports that show that the aerosol pollution in cinemas is lower than in offices. They therefore advocate loosening the rules of distance and letting more spectators into the halls. Because even if there was only one seat left open to the neighbor, you would still have 1.20 distance from seat center to seat center, they explain. Without looking in the face. Without talking to each other.

"With a sense of proportion, more could be achieved here and there," said Yorck boss Bräuer. The cinema is a very structured operation and offers very good premises to implement hygiene requirements well and consistently: the audience does not come at the same time, you can equalize entry and exit, you can follow contacts.

Four federal states have already relaxed their rules. In Berlin, for example, a distance of one meter between two moviegoers is enough if they are wearing a mask. In Schleswig-Holstein one free seat is enough in all directions – without a mask. That doesn't sound like much, but it helps: In the federal states where alternative rules apply, around half of the capacities could be used, says HDF board member Christine Berg. That would also be good news for the distributors, because even the entertainment giant Disney seems to have failed with its "Mulan" experiment: The mouse would probably have earned more with the film in the cinemas.

"Life is more"

Such attempts to bypass the cinemas do not make Bräuer nervous. On the one hand, not every studio has its own streaming platform, on the other hand, making cinema has never been easy. First came the television, then the video, then the internet, now the coronavirus. But none of this changes the fact that film fans prefer to watch big films on big screens. No medium can tell stories as well as film, says the head of the Yorck cinema group. "There will always be people who want to use it."

Something else speaks in favor of the cinemas: For the vast majority of people, they are a shared experience. "It's great that you can order everything online and watch all the films and series at home," says Christian Bräuer. "But life is more." And right now, in the first virus winter, cinemas can be an important refuge when the ceiling falls on people's heads at home, but beer gardens and outdoor pools are closed. That is why it would perhaps also be in the interests of politics to help the cinemas financially so that their voters are distracted by viruses, curfew and accommodation bans.

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