For the first time in a year, cinemas have opened in New York. A partial recovery which is not enough to get the industry out of the crisis.
For nearly a year, the dark rooms of New York had not seen the light of a projector. For the first time, Friday, March 5, the cinemas of the American city opened their doors to the public.
With the health context, all the inhabitants of the megalopolis can not hurry for the reopening. Places are drastically limited. New York State Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo has given the green light on condition that a gauge of 25% of room capacity or 50 people be met.
Chilly majors
Lowering the number of spectators is not the only condition. The latter are also required to wear a mask (when they are not eating) and must remain in their seats. When booking, the seats around them automatically become locked, physical distancing requires.
Constraints which are not without consequences for the industry. For the rooms which have decided to open, the receipts are largely reduced, consequence of the reduction in the number of entries. A loss of revenue from tickets, but also from the sale of sweets. The popcorn and other snacks trade there represented 40% of cinema revenues in 2018. Ancillary products, which, unlike tickets, allow for a more comfortable margin.
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As for the large studios, despite the opening, we are cautious. The studios refuse to be satisfied with small audiences, even confidential. We therefore find very few posters of large productions, with the exception of a few titles such as “Cruella” or “Godzilla vs King Kong».
For the industry, the next expected step is the opening of the Los Angeles market. Together with New York, these two cities represent 12% of national revenue. In areas already open like Chicago, audiences are low. Critics revolve around programming that is not attractive enough. The chicken or egg dilemma is then played out, low audiences make the majors cautious at the idea of releasing their productions, which therefore reduces the catalog, etc.
8.2 million for Raya and the Last Dragon
Joseph Masher, the president of the New York branch of the American Association of Cinema Owners (Nato) is rather confident. The prospect of a partial lifting of restrictions in Los Angeles in the coming weeks “means that studios will be able to keep their films on schedule and not offer them directly to streaming», Explained the man at CNBC.
After months of publications only on its Disney + catalog, Disney studios have unveiled their latest production Raya and the Last Dragon, quickly became number 1 in theaters. An outing that made it possible to harvest barely $ 8.6 million in a weekend. For comparison, the film Vaiana had raised $ 53 million over the same period. In second place in the ranking, Tom and Jerry, released on February 10, has collected 23 million dollars for the time being.
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The progress of vaccination should also allow a relaxation of the constraints. In the USA, 90 million doses have already been injected.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, a meeting revolving around a reopening should have taken place Thursday, March 4. It was to bring together those responsible for the cinema industry and the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot. A missed appointment, since it was canceled 24 hours before it was held by the minister.
At a press conference, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, gave him a glimpse of a return “to a more normal life»And an improvement for the cultural sector. As the health context remains difficult, no announcement was made: “I am not going to give you here either the date or the nature of the places concerned, because that would not be responsible at a time when the epidemic situation does not lend to consider reopening ”.
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