Cinema operators between “enthusiasm” and “anxiety” on the eve of reopening

Before the long-awaited reopening of cinemas, after more than a hundred days of cinematographic fallow, cinema exhibitors oscillate between " enthusiasm and anxiety ", estimates the president of the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF) Richard Patry, for whom " the most hard is ahead . " He entrusted his hopes and fears to AFP.

What is the state of mind of the operators?
Robert PATRY. -There is a real form of enthusiasm. We had 99 days of closure, unheard of in the history of cinematographic exploitation. This means 15,000 people who are partially unemployed. We can say that almost all of our employees and French operators have been truly stopped, and stopped longer than everyone else. The second state of mind, mainly of operators, is still great anxiety, not because we are afraid of reopening, but because we clearly know that the hardest part is ahead of us. We wonder how many will survive in the coming months (...) We know very well, just by the measure limiting the gauge, but not only, that we will not be able to have 100% of the revenue. The rooms will have to organize themselves to be as economical as possible to pass this period. It is truly the year of all dangers. We hope that there will be a government assistance plan for reopening, but also a much more structuring stimulus plan.

Is the implementation of sanitary measures easy?
It takes a lot of organization. Fortunately for us, what we asked for, beyond a reopening date known in advance, is also to have a health guide known in advance. From this point of view, the government has followed our expectations. (...) If we work upstream, if we train our employees properly and we anticipate putting a little more time between each session for example to manage the flows, it goes well. Our desire, of course, was to guarantee optimum health security for spectators, but also not to overdo it, so that going to the cinema remains a pleasure.

Don't you fear that people have lost the habit of going to the movies?
Why would new habits kill old ones? The cinema offers what no other form of broadcasting offers, shared pleasure, sociability. I am sure that we will get up, because there is no reason that the pleasure that the directors offered us with an exceptional year in 2019, and the pleasure of the people who live an emotion together, disappeared with confinement. It is clear that this will take time. We are certain that the regulars will come back first and that the occasional ones will take a little longer to return. But there is nothing to make us think that we could not find our attendance levels in the coming months.