So the first sentence should read correctly: Dieter Lebert is now making mainstream cinema. While he continues to focus on art films in the Erlenbacher Passage, the cinema in the district town will continue to show the big Hollywood blockbusters – if possible as soon as they are released nationwide.
“We’ll have to wait and see whether we’ll show arthouse films in one of the smaller halls in Miltenberg later on. At the moment, this is new territory for me,” says Lebert, who is grateful that the previous operators Wolfgang and Gabi Gebauer have promised him support when he started in the district town.
Successor found
Five years ago, Wolfgang Gebauer and his wife Gabi saved the Schloss Theater. At the time, the two already had two cinemas, the Roxy in Wertheim and the Broadway, and not only bought the Schloss Theater building from the previous owner Anni Baier, but also continued to run the cinema – even through the Corona years, which hit the industry hard.
The fact that the Gebauers are now looking for a successor is not due to a dwindling audience, but simply due to age. “We have been running cinemas for 48 years, I am now 68 and want to do something else,” says Wolfgang Gebauer. He has known “Dieter” for 30 years and considers him to be a proven expert in film art. “He has everything that is needed to successfully continue running the Schloss-Theater.”
Wolfgang Gebauer had already closed the Wertheim Roxy in 2022. Here it took almost two years until a new operating model was found and the lights came back on this June. A support association, the Roxy Kino Club, was founded for the new start and wants to support theater director Eva Paul. In Miltenberg, on the other hand, the transition was now seamless.
Three halls, 420 seats
The Miltenberg cinema has three screening rooms with a total of around 420 seats. According to Gebauer, this means it is large enough for the distribution companies to show their blockbusters in the small town. “We are very satisfied with the number of visitors, and now that the strikes in Hollywood are over, the big box office hits are coming back,” says Gebauer, who expects audience numbers to rise again in the last quarter.
In fact, according to the market report of the German Federal Film Board, cinema attendance figures rose again last year. Small cinemas in particular benefited from this, while some large cinemas are still struggling, according to the industry report.
Nostalgic charm
The cinema operators often hear from out-of-town guests that the castle theater has a special charm, with its location in the middle of Miltenberg’s old town and its entrance and foyer, which have remained unchanged since 1954. The digital projection technology and sound system, however, are state-of-the-art, so the new operator does not currently have to make any investments.
The castle theater had a break during Michaelmas. Before that, the Gebauers were at the box office and in the screening room, but now Lebert and his Passage team are taking over. Lebert says he will gladly accept the start-up help offered by Wolfgang Gebauer, especially in establishing contacts with the dispatchers of the major distribution companies. To start with, he will probably be in Miltenberg at least once or twice a week, he announces, even though the Passage foyer is actually his living room and the employees there are his family. This dedication of the cinema enthusiast to his passion is also a positive signal for the long-term preservation of the Miltenberg castle theater: he is not thinking about retirement, says 63-year-old Lebert: “My life is cinema, I’ll do it until I die.”
GEORG KÜMMEL
Background: Kino Passage Erlenbach
Since 1979, the Kino Passage has been firmly established as an arthouse cinema in Erlenbach and has received numerous awards. The prizes and funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and the Film Fernseh Fonds Bayern (FFF) help operator Dieter Lebert to put together sophisticated annual programs with documentaries, short films and children’s films and to supplement the pure film screenings with events with directors, actors and other filmmakers. The foundation for the success of the Erlenbach Passage was laid by long-time managing director Eva Matlok, who died in 2021 after a serious illness. Dieter Lebert has been working with her successors Stefan Heinke and Belinda Mohr since he took over management himself ten years ago. The large cinema hall has 165 seats and a 9.50 by four meter screen. The image comes either from the new NEC 1200 digital projector with a resolution of 2K or – in rare cases – from the 35mm projection dinosaur, the Bauer B 11, which has been providing faithful service for many years. The projection technology and sound system were brought up to date in 2012. kü
