Mainz / Saarbrücken (dpa / lrs) – Many cinemas in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarbrücken experienced a rush of visitors after the end of the corona-related forced break on July 1st. “That was sensational,” said managing director Oliver Fock from the Cinestar chain, which operates 48 stores nationwide, including in Saarbrücken, Mainz and Ludwigshafen. The CineStar cinemas could have welcomed six times as many visitors as in the previous year and even exceeded the comparison weekend in 2019 in attendance, he said. In the cinemas, the seating capacity is reduced due to the applicable hygiene and safety regulations.
Ralf Holl, head of the Nastätten cinema center in the Rhein-Lahn district and member of the main committee of the Main Association of German Film Theaters, also draws a positive interim balance: “After eight months of lockdown, it was nice to see how happy the guests were on their way back to the cinema found, “he said. Especially from July 2nd, since the compulsory test in Rhineland-Palatinate no longer existed, the visitors stood in line. “There was really something going on,” said Holl.
The worry that there would be a lack of films when an opening was made is a thing of the past. Since they agreed on July 1st as the joint restart date with cinema and distribution associations, many film starts were scheduled for July and August. “On the first weekend we had almost too many films,” reported Holl. Especially the small houses with fewer than six screens would not have known how to cope with the mass of films. With “Fast & Furious 9”, “the first real blockbuster” will hit the cinemas on July 14th.
According to the interest group of cinema operators in Germany (HDF Kino), “Godzilla vs. Kong”, “Conjuring 3: Under the Spell of the Devil”, the children’s film “Peter Hase 2” and “Catweazle” were particularly popular. “The number of visitors on the opening weekend and the number of halls sold out in many places show that the cinema is back,” said Christine Berg, director of HDF cinema. The expectation that the guests would return to the big screen as soon as they had the opportunity to do so was completely fulfilled.
Holl now hopes that this development will continue, that the corona numbers will not go up again “and in the end we will not be the first to have to close again”. In the last wave it was “not entirely justified that culture and cinema were the pawns”.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210710-99-329444 / 3
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