We’re rather smiling these days, Rue des Ursulines. The Studio cinemas in Tours are seeing their attendance increase, as well as the number of subscribers. A dynamic driven by popular arthouse films and an ever-rich event policy. The program for the coming months is starting to take shape.
At the national level, the year 2024 is marked by two huge cinema successes: A little something extra by Artus around disability and Le Comte de Monte Cristo with Pierre Niney. We can also cite the cardboard of Vice Versa 2 or the release of the French blockbuster phew love by Gilles Lellouche this Wednesday October 16.
These 4 films are not really part of the productions that can be seen at the Studio de Tours cinemas. However, even without them, the arthouse cinema on Rue des Ursulines is working well these days. Or even very good: “We are at 215,000 admissions between January and September and we should reach 325,000 or 330,000 by the end of the year” announces the president of the associative structure, Dominique Plumecocq. If this figure is reached, we will be well above the 316,000 seats occupied in the 7 theaters of the multiplex in 2023. And when we sometimes hear that the cinema is looking gloomy, it is a positive signal.
So what does the Studio wear? Already its subscribers: 17,000 in 2023, more like 17,800 today. School sessions, with 16,000 children welcomed per year. There are also promising films in its editorial line: more than 100,000 entries spread over around thirty films, and 200,000 over the remaining 540 others. Thus the 2023 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Anatomy of a falltotaled 8,727 spectators.
The association’s dynamic activities also explain its ability to maintain a consistent base of visits. Despite the difficulty of bringing in actresses and actors, deplored by management, sessions in the presence of directors are frequent, often attracting full houses. Festivals like the LGBT event Désir Désirs in January and the FICAT around Asian films in March are sufficiently established to ensure natural success, just like La Nuit des Studio and its series of films until 6 a.m. at the beginning of June , or the Night of Horror at the end of August.
And despite this already busy schedule, the Studios continue to renew themselves. This month of October, they are joining forces, for example, with the Mauvais Tours festival, revival of the former Mauvais Genre festival and which is dedicated to the cinema of the imagination over 4 days between this Thursday October 17 and this Sunday October 20 (we will see for example the Latvian film Flow around a cat who loves water, a feature film that caused a sensation in its country and internationally). Another innovation: a film-music evening during the Jazz à Tours festival in November, while waiting for the theme of the next marathon in July 2025 (around a personality or a saga).
This plethoric catalog allows both to retain the loyalty of Studio enthusiasts and to attract new audiences, such as young people, difficult to capture but who would be more and more likely to slip into the seats, tells us the general staff of the association. Cinephiles with well-placed curiosity, who come here in addition to what they can see at the CGR, at Pathé or on the platforms: “They are the supermarket, we are the grocery store” mischievously summarizes Jean-Pierre Moreau from the communications commission.
A grocery store that does not shy away from modernity. After the renovation of its rooms, the complex will shortly launch a new version of its website.
