For months, cinema operators in Rhineland-Palatinate have adapted their halls and technology to the latest Corona regulations. They have finally been able to reopen for around two weeks – and the audience is returning in droves.
Many cinemas in Rhineland-Palatinate 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 Mainz and Ludwigshafen.
The CineStar cinemas could have welcomed six times as many visitors as last 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.
Many film launches in July and August
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.
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Ralf Holl, CEO of the Kinomarkt Deutschland Cooperative, shows a poster in the hall of his cinema that refers to the corona distance rules.
dpa Bildfunk
Picture Alliance
The worry that there would be a lack of films when an opening was made is a thing of the past. Since they agreed with the cinema and distribution associations on July 1st as the common restart date, 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 master the mass of films. With “Fast & Furious 9”, “the first real blockbuster” will hit theaters on July 14th.
Sold out halls
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 that are sold out in many places show that the cinema is back,” said HDF cinema director Christine Berg. 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”. Even with the last wave it was “not entirely justified that culture and cinema were the pawns”.
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