At the national level, the attendance of dark rooms finds spring colors. Locally, the Pathé Dijon “settles in the landscape” while the Darcy can count on a loyal audience and the Olympia has to face new competition.
Show must go on. More than a year after the end of the restrictions linked to the health crisis, French cinemas are rediscovering spring colors. The lifting of the wearing of the protective mask had been recorded in February 2022 followed by the end of the health pass in March 2022.
During the summer of 2022, Info Dijon had given the floor to the managers of the Olympia and Darcy cinemas (read our article), Pathé Dijon and Cape Verde (read our article) as well as Eldorado (read our article).
The situation still seemed difficult in the expectation of films capable of encouraging the public to find their way back to the dark rooms. Cinema attendance in 2022 was 27% lower than the annual average for the 2017-2019 period. The sequels to “Avatar”, “Top Gun” and “Minions” have received favor from viewers.
French films are on par with American blockbusters
On May 2, the National Center for Cinema and Animated Image (CNC) announced a return of the public to theaters at the level of the pre-health crisis period.
Across France, 19.01 million admissions were recorded in April 2023, an increase of 37.8% compared to April 2022 and an increase of 2.7% compared to the 2017 average. 2019.
The CNC noted that French films were on a par with American blockbusters by posting market shares of 41.1% and 45.4% respectively over a rolling twelve-month period (13.5% for other countries).
To consider the local version of this announcement, Info Dijon returned to the Darcy Palace group, Pathé cinemas and Eldorado cinema. The latter did not respond to our requests.
At Darcy and Olympia, the difficult comparison with 2019
The Darcy Palace company operates the Darcy and Olympia cinemas in downtown Dijon. “We are still far from the figures of 2019”, indicates Sylvie Massu, president and general manager of the family business.
“It should be noted that we had an exceptional year in 2019, with a rather singular number of buoyant films! It is therefore difficult to match this period, ”she notes.
“In addition, it should be noted that the Dijon market has evolved with the arrival of Pathé Dijon, which has redistributed all the cards we had in hand. Cape Verde, Darcy and Olympia have necessarily suffered from the opening of this cinema”, analyzes Sylvie Massu. “The numbers bear this out.”
Olympia suffers from competition
According to Darcy Palace, if we compare the period from January to April 2019 with the similar period in 2023, the Darcy saw a drop in attendance of 21.16% and the Olympia of 25.39%.
If we only take into account the month of April, highlighted by the CNC, in 2019, the Darcy is affected by a drop in admissions of 17.97% and the Olympia by 26.45%. .
Cinema with a loyal audience, the Darcy seems poised to mitigate the decline felt since the opening of the Pathé Dijon while competition is more direct with the Olympia.
Surge of blockbusters by summer
“The French love… French films!” Enthuses Sylvie Massu, however, who notes that the main successes of April concern “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan”, “Super Mario Bros, the film”, “Sur les Chemins blacks” while “Alibi.com 2”, “Asterix and Obelix, the Middle Empire”, “Puss in Boots 2” and “Avatar 2” were acclaimed in the previous months.
However, in the coming weeks, the Darcy Palace team is impatiently awaiting some important American productions: the live action from Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’, Pixar’s new ‘Elementary’, as well as ‘Fast and Furious X’, ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’, ‘The Flash’ from the DC superhero universe, ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”, “Barbie” with Margot Robbie, “Oppenheimer” by Christopher Nolan… not to mention the French animated film “Miraculous” by Jeremy Zag .
“In short, great productions to come this summer that should delight everyone,” sums up Sylvie Massu.
Apart from the previews organized regularly, the Darcy will offer this summer the “My Little Films” festival, aimed at children, from the age of three, with nine works.
“The Pathé Dijon is gradually settling into the landscape”
In 2019, Cinémas Pathé Gaumont bought the Ciné Alpes group, owner of Ciné Cap Vert in Quetigny. For technical reasons, the new team is currently unable to make comparisons with the previous period.
The Pathé Dijon opened on May 5, 2022, at the same time as the International City of Gastronomy and Wine. From May to August 2022, in four months, the Pathé Dijon cinema received 45,000 spectators. Today, over twelve months, attendance has jumped to 200,000 spectators.
A number of admissions boosted by the lowering of the full price from 14.50 euros to 9.90 euros since the end of last December; a tariff offer extended until August.
“The Pathé Dijon is gradually settling into the cinematographic landscape of the Dijon agglomeration”, soberly comments Valérie Sutter, agglomeration director of Pathé Cinémas.
“The end of the year promises to be very rich”
“Attendance at the start of the year was driven by the momentum created at the end of 2022 around ”Avatar, the way to water” and continued with ”Alibi.com2”, ”Asterix and Obélix: the Empire of the middle”, points out Valérie Sutter.
In April, the public at the Cité de la Gastronomie cinema was also seduced by “Super Mario Bros, the film”, “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” but also by “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor of Thieves”. and “10 days again without mom” with Franck Dubosc and Aure Atika.
“The offer of upcoming films is promising,” enthuses the director, who is counting on the successes of “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3”, “Fast & Furious X” on May 17, “The Little Mermaid” on May 24 then “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, “Oppenheimer” and the seventh part of “Mission: Impossible” in July. And to anticipate: “the end of the year also promises to be very rich”.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
2023-05-08 10:56:03
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