The period after the New Year is a nightmare for cinema operators and film studios. As is often the case, many experts predicted the situation in advance, especially as a result of last year’s Hollywood strike, which caused the postponement of many attractive blockbusters to the later months of this year. While we will be inundated with one spectacular film after another in the spring, there is practically nothing to go on at the moment. For that reason, global and also Czech attendance at cinemas has fallen to historic lows comparable to the period of lockdowns a few years ago.
They don’t even go to Prachar in droves anymore
Compared to the summer season, the winter season is almost every year poor in interesting news and is mainly filled with Oscar candidates. Nevertheless, every now and then there is a hit with the audience that takes full advantage of the combination of zero competition and the cold weather outside. From a global point of view, it should have been Sony’s comic book Madam Web this year. You could already guess from the advertising campaign that, on the contrary, a giant flop is rushing to the cinemas, which will burn out both among the audience and financially, and the studio will be shaking its pants because of it.
In contrast, another winter hit in the Czech Republic was to be Rudolf Havlík’s comedy – Franta the Alien with Jakub Prachar in the lead role. Similar to Madam Web, it was already clear from the previews that we were not in for any cultural experience, but the current “star power” of Jakub Prachara indicated at least a solid attendance exceeding 100,000 viewers.
This expectation was logically based on the thematically related crazy comedy Jedeme na teambuilding also with Prachar, Vojtěch Kotek or Anna Polívková, which managed to gather a very dazzling 240,000 viewers since the New Year despite comparatively poor reviews. One of the factors of the high attendance was precisely the weak competition and the hunger for undemanding entertainment.
However, František the alien, together with director Havlík – who otherwise has audience hits such as Ostrov or Po čem muži desi with 300,000 and 500,000 viewers respectively – can completely forget about such numbers. Instead, he will be happy if it climbs to the 50,000 mark. This is really not much for the Czech Buran comedy, which is otherwise liked by domestic viewers, and it is already lagging in attendance behind, for example, the historical drama One Life about the story of Nicholas Winton.
František the Alien, which is only in cinemas for the second week (!), was enough to shoot down even several weeks or months old pieces such as The Aristocrat in Boiling or the children’s animation Birds of Prey. The two-month-old Wonka musical was only a few dozen viewers behind. If it weren’t for the films from last year, movie theaters could easily close their theaters for a while and not many people would miss them.
It is in comparison to domestic hits like Jedeme na teambuilding or Aristokratka ve var, which both managed to gather over 230,000 viewers, that František the Alien comes out as a real flop despite a massive advertising campaign, from which there was almost no escape at the beginning of February. Would Prachar’s viewers really have eaten their fill and stopped being curious about his new releases? Or is the movie really so bad that it’s not even worth seeing? Who knows.
Expensive tickets discourage viewers from visiting the cinema. Even on St. Valentine’s Day
A much more likely factor that certainly affects the current low attendance is the increasing price of tickets. We are talking in particular about the Cinema City chain, which even before Christmas increased the price of its tickets by approximately 10%, but still kept its unique, but meaningless handling fee of CZK 24. This means that the cheapest visit in the chain with the largest number of multiplexes in the Czech Republic will cost you at least CZK 300 per person.
In the period of St. On Valentine’s Day, when many couples traditionally go on a date to the cinema, such a joint visit can easily climb to 600 CZK. And that, please, without refreshments (which have become more expensive by a similar amount) or travel (which has also become more expensive), because Cinema City is only available in regional towns. So, if one of them clicked the entire visit with everything by himself, it would easily cost him more than 1000 CZK. That’s a decent dinner for two in a better restaurant.
However, the chain was well aware of this situation in advance, and therefore tried to lure the lovebirds through a discount event, where the significant other has a ticket for only half price (which, by the way, is still approx. 150 CZK, which I spend on myself in my small-town cinema a comparable movie experience).
Failed! Total attendance during the Valentine’s week in the Czech Republic fell by 10,000 to almost 30,000 viewers. They manage to make such a number of successful films in one day.
Will cinemas around the world save the second Dune?
Speaking of successful films, moviegoers around the world are now turning to the second installment of Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve, as a savior, which, according to journalists’ reactions, is supposed to be the epic sci-fi spectacle of the year, maybe even the decade. However, lovers of honest filmmaking and captivating performances, and not just artificial digital attractions, will also find their way, so we can predict an increased, even record-breaking, interest in this almost three-hour film.
In the Czech Republic, Duna’s attendance will not be threatened by the new relationship comedy with Hřebíčková, Matka v trapo, which, according to the first reviews, looks like another unfunny domestic hell, of which there have been enough since the New Year. If you’re tired of sitting at home all the time, with the ski season over, but the real spring still in sight, and you’re interested in quality movies, it might be worth marking the date 2/29 in your calendar and being the first to witness the cinematic event of the year .
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2024-02-26 10:48:00
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