Since the introduction of the health pass, French cinemas have lost 7 million admissions, or 50 million in turnover. What conclusions do cinema exhibitors draw? We heard their testimony after a mixed summer.
How did cinemas face the summer season, the second summer under Covid? What was the impact of the implementation of the health pass?
Since the obligation of the pass on July 21, theaters would have lost 7 million admissions, or 50 million euros in turnover. These figures are those communicated at the beginning of the week by the representative of French cinemas, Richard Patry, president of the FNCF.
On the CNC side, the National Center for Cinematography, August data also attest to a drop in the number of admissions: 11.28 million admissions (i.e. one 68.7% increase compared to August 2020). But a decrease compared to July 2021, which had recorded 14.1 million admissions, driven in particular by the good starts of Fast and Furious 9 and Kaamelott – First part (see the Top 10 of the summer below).
Box office: a month of July on the rise despite the health pass
Beyond these figures, what assessment do cinema operators make? What state of mind are they in this re-entry? We asked several of them, representing the diversity of our rooms, from multiplexes to art house, without forgetting the essential Grand Rex in Paris, in order to draw up an inventory, from their point of view.
The operators contacted confirm that the implementation of the health pass was a blow, and this from the announcement of July 12. “Clearly, there was a before and an after health pass, launches Sophie Dulac. He clearly undermined, and it still continues, the desire of people to come to the cinema. The attendance is, obviously, felt a lot, and the summer was quite bad for me “, according to the president of Maison Dulac, at the head of 5 arthouse cinemas in Paris (the Arlequin, the Reflet Médicis, the Escorial Panorama, the Majestic Bastille and the Majestic Passy).
“This is a real mess. We had restarted an operation which was very dynamic. The spectators gave us the great joy to come back in large numbers to frequent the cinemas. At the beginning of July, we were on equivalent figures, or even higher than in the summer of 2019, which was very encouraging.“, explains Arnaud Vialle, Rex operator in Sarlat, in the Dordogne.
“From the moment there was the July 12 announcement and its implementation on July 21, it was a drastic drop of minus 60%. It was a slaughterhouse. Since July 21, we have been stigmatized since we are the only ones to have been imposed like that, from July 21, a health pass.“
The same drop in attendance observed on the side of the CGR multiplex network. “TOBefore the announcement of the health pass, we were almost at record figures compared to N-2. It means that people want to come back to the movies. EThen there was the announcement around July 14 of the health pass for an implementation on the 21st, with this lack of fairness – 3 weeks before everyone else – where we were in the eye of the storm . The benchmark is Tuesday when we were at 300,000 entries from France to Kaamelott, and Wednesday at 60,000. So we have the impact of the announcement of the health pass and its implementation. There, it was a disaster! Less than 50%, more or less. ”
Health pass: how will the rooms be organized? The director of the Grand Rex responds
The legendary Grand Rex cinema, which had been forced into temporary closure last summer for the first time in its history, has remained open this season, but had also, brutally, to accuse the blow. “In July, before the health pass, we had events: there is Fast and Furious 9, Black Widow, Kaamelott … For the latter, just in preview, we made more than 6,000 entries on Tuesday evening.We were very happy for a month of July, for a recovery with the Covid, with gauges, etc., indicates Alexandre Hellmann, at the head of the Grand Rex in Paris.
“After the second phase, with the health pass, films like Fast and Furious lost a lot: we recorded less -92%“, he continues.
What are the tops and flops of the summer?
Has one type of cinema in particular suffered more than another? According to Richard Patry, “all films suffer, because the drop in attendance is fairly linear“, he indicates in the columns of Télérama.
The summer box office in France is dominated by franchises, whether American or French, as illustrated …
