This time it should be the right one.
The cinemas are going to be part of these "places of culture", mentioned by Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday evening, the reopening of which will be organized from mid-May, probably on Monday 17. A resumption that will take place under different conditions which will then evolve over the weeks.
Gauges, curfews and "territorialization"
Scared by the promises to reopen in December finally unfulfilled, the cinema owners, recalling the "distress" of the sector which will reach 200 consecutive days of closure in mid-May, do not yet cry victory, far from it. “We are waiting for the speech to come from the President of the Republic. The fact remains that we have never been so close… ”, recognizes Richard Patry, president of the Federation of French cinemas, who has no firm assurance from the government on the reopening date. “If it were just an announcement effect, it would make the situation explosive…”, adds Gautier Labrusse, director of the Le Lux cinema in Caen (Calvados). It prevents.All the players in the profession have been preparing a revival for mid-May for several weeks through meetings with the Ministry of Culture and the National Cinema Center (CNC). "Meetings which took place with other cultural sectors, confirms Richard Patry and which resulted in a provisional reopening schedule with progressive gauges ..."
Confirmation from Roselyne Bachelot on RMC and BFMTV TV this Friday morning: “We built the protocols with the professionals. When the president gives us his signal start, we will be ready ”. This schedule would be as follows: national opening of cinemas in mid-May with an audience rating of 35%, then 65% three to four weeks later, between early and mid-June, and finally 100% of spectators again three to four weeks later, at most in mid-July. For each level, "it is the evolution of the epidemic that would determine the next threshold between three and four weeks" specifies Gautier Labrusse. Other sources suggest that the curfew could be extended to 9 p.m. or 11 p.m.with a time-stamping system thanks to the cinema ticket which would allow spectators to return home after the end of the last authorized screening. And these gauges could be "territorialized": 35% initially for the departments in red in terms of circulation of the virus, and probably 65% in areas where Covid-19 circulates little ...
Sanitary measures and aid maintained
Recent meetings with the ministry and the CNC have also served to organize the health and financial conditions for the coming recovery.
The charter drawn up by the sector during the previous restart in June 2020 - which notably provides for distance between spectators, directions of movement, disinfection of the premises after each session - would be maintained and perhaps hardened via additional ventilation conditions.
And Richard Patry has no doubts about the fact that with spectator gauges so small, government aid will be maintained: “as for all companies, compensation of 50% for loss of turnover remains in order. », He slices.
By insisting on the fact that all cinemas do not benefit from the same amount of aid: “What is valid for independents is not valid for large multiplex circuits.
For the latter, it is therefore even more important to reopen.
Otherwise the risk of seeing large networks shut down, as is currently the case in the United States, is real… ”And he recalls that on average, in normal times, the national occupancy rate of French cinemas is 15% : “35% is already more than double!
"
Dupontel's film at the head of the bridge
Reopening "whatever the cost" is what makes everyone agree. "Even if I start again at a loss with a gauge of 35%, I consider that it is an investment to reconnect with the public of my cinema", slice Gautier Labrusse. At the other end of the chain, film distributors are of the same opinion. “Winning back the public is the absolute urgency. You have to be inventive, and above all make people want, insists Ariane Toscan du Plantier, director of distribution at Gaumont. In other words, make sure that this reopening is festive… ”
But with which films? 400 feature films are now piling up on the shelves of distributors, it is a question of working together, of getting along, of choosing. All are therefore working on a concerted programming schedule, in order to avoid traffic jams with large competing films to the detriment of smaller ones. The emerging solution is modeled on that found during the first deconfinement: films released in October and which saw their careers abruptly interrupted, will come out first.
According to our information, the bridgehead in mid-May would be Albert Dupontel's “Goodbye idiots”, affected by the second confinement. By relaunching it as of the resumption, without major competition, Gaumont would thus ensure a good second career with the film, devoted to the Césars, even with 35% maximum of the public. And it is from mid-June and the gauge at 65% that great novelties would settle in the headliners of theaters: Thursday morning, Disney announced the French release of "Nomadland", favorite of the Oscars and several times shifted, for June 9.
