No longer just hundreds of simple armchairs: The cinemas in Hohenlohe offer more, also to get people back from the sofas and streaming services Photo: Oliver Berg
Whether it’s an escape from the news, a romantic evening or simply the enthusiasm for new films: for many people, the cinema is a special place. Even if the death knell for cinemas has been sounded many times, cinema is alive. The cinema results for 2023 collected by the German Federal Film Board show that the number of cinemas has grown again after the pandemic. There are now even more than in 2019.
There are very different cinemas in Hohenlohe: The Klappe in Kirchberg an der Jagst is a pure arthouse cinema. Other cinemas show Hollywood blockbusters. We approached various operators for our research. A major change recently took place in Schwäbisch Hall: After 110 years of family ownership, Rainer Köhnlein handed over the two cinemas Lichtspielhaus and Gloria to the Stuttgart company Kinostar.
Holi/Scala in Öhringen:
Rooms: 1/1, heated/ventilated
Seats per hall: 79/213
Most successful film of 2024 (so far): Despicable Me 4
Operator still has high hopes for: Joker 2, Vaiana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King
Prestige in Künzelsau:
Rooms: 3, air-conditioned
Seats per hall: 28 to 131
Most successful film of 2024 (so far): Inside Out 2
Operator still has high hopes for: Gladiator 2, The Wild Robot, Venom Last Dance, Vaiana 2
Is the growing competition from streaming providers the reason? Michael Roesch, the managing director of Kinostar, says no. “We had already worked with Rainer Köhnlein for many years,” and the takeover was planned for the long term, even before the competition from streaming.
People are coming back to the cinema, Roesch observes. “Although the offer is not as strong this year due to the strikes in Hollywood,” his team notices that more people are coming to the cinemas and the numbers “are developing very nicely.”
Why do people come to the cinema? The operators have different ideas about this. Ralph Gläser describes going to the cinema as a time out. He runs the Öhringen cinemas, which used to belong to Kinosta. In the cinema, “it is almost impossible to be disturbed by commercial breaks, phone calls or similar.” The screen and sound have a different effect on the viewer than television.
Freshly renovated and sofas installed
The Künzelsau Prestige cinema was renovated last year. Since then, the hall has been significantly smaller. It was reduced from 57 cinema seats to 28 sofa seats. Operator Nenad Tomasinjak sees a unique selling point in the fact that you can watch films “together with others” and with special “3D sound”.
Cinema/Gloria in Schwäbisch Hall
Rooms: 4/2, heated/3 rooms air-conditioned
Seats per hall: 32 to 167
Most successful film of 2024 (so far): Inside Out 2
Operator still has high hopes for: Joker 2, Gladiator 2, Conclave, The Lord of the Rings, Wicked and Mufasa: The Lion King
Cinecity/Kammer in Crailsheim
Rooms: 5/1, heated and air-conditioned
Seats per hall: 76 to 200
Most successful film 2024 (so far): Chantal in Fairytale Land
Operator still has high hopes for: School for Magical Animals 3, Joker: Folie à deux, Mufasa: The Lion King
The equipment plays an important role in the cinemas in Hohenlohe. In the Cinecity in Crailsheim there are seats that move in time with the film, in a hall in Hall the cinema seats are placed at tables and there is catering. The operators in the big cities describe their cinemas as cinemas with mainstream films, sometimes with arthouse films in their program. The most successful films so far this year have all been sequels or spin-offs of other successful films. The films that the operators have high hopes for are “Gladiator 2”, “Venom 2”, “Musafa – The Lion King”, “Vaiana 2” and “Joker 2”.
The Klappe in Kirchberg an der Jagst is an exotic among the cinemas in Hohenlohe. As a pure arthouse cinema, no blockbusters or mainstream films are shown here. Instead, films from Germany and Europe are shown. The films are selected primarily through festivals, such as the Berlinale, Locarno or the film art fair in Leipzig, reports Heiner Dormann, who is responsible for the program. Specialist magazines and internet research are also helpful. The fact that no mainstream films are shown, but rather “consistently good arthouse films”, is his way of luring people off their sofas and into the cinema. The film that the Klappe operators are most hoping for therefore has a different title and is not called “Joker 2”, but “With love, your Hilde”.
Flap in Kirchberg an der Jagst
Rooms: 1, heated
Seats per hall: 88
Most successful film of 2024 (so far): The Beloved Cook
Operator hopes for a lot more from: With love, your Hilde
But how can such a cinema survive in the countryside? “We have a large building and a pub,” which is the guarantee of survival, says Silvia Zott, who runs the cinema with Dormann. In addition, Klappe regularly applies for awards from the Baden-Württemberg Media and Film Society and the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media, “we have been involved since 2001.” This is linked to funding.