The Basque Cinema Association (EZAE) has demanded that the Basque Government regain 60% of the cinema capacity, considering that it is “incomprehensible” that keep the maximum attendance at 35%.
In a statement, the association has assured that it does not understand that the Basque Government decides to maintain the current restrictions in the rooms “without providing any arguments, beyond the proximity of the non-patron saint festivities, that they have nothing to do with the activity of movie theaters and other activities with greater capacity are allowed “.
Theaters, some of which have been forced to close due to the losses suffered, find it increasingly difficult to recover part of them and fear that with such small capacity it will complicate access to the most important premieres. According to an estimate made by EZAE, the reduction in capacity from 60 to 35% represents, on average, for Basque cinemas losses of 600,000 euros per month.
Fall of the sector
According to this association, the effort made by theaters in recent months had the objective of cutting these losses, as institutional aid was “insufficient”, and thanks to attractive premieres, the public was responding. For this reason, they regret that the Basque Government is “destroying” what has been recovered so far, and places the rooms of Euskadi in the most restrictive scenario “without justifying cause”.
Due to these complications, they fear that ERTEs will have to be expanded, after losses in their account 10 million euros in 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, reducing viewers by more than 65%.
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