Closed since March 15 because of the pandemic, the UGC George-V on the Champs-Élysées, will not reopen like 2000 other cinemas in France, Monday, June 22. The curtain fell on this historic jewel which had just celebrated its 82 years. According to our information, UGC management must return the keys on June 30 to the owner of the walls, Groupama. The insurer intends to completely renovate its building to transform it, in particular, into a hotel. UGC was a tenant and received leave from the insurer without a renewal offer. He leaves in exchange for compensation.
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This new closure of a cinema on the Champs-Élysées is explained by the property value of the buildings on this avenue. A cinema no longer interests the owners because the rooms take up too much space for a rent they deem insufficient. For operators too, the situation is complicated. There are fewer and fewer inhabitants in this district, which for a local business like a cinema is a disaster. In some cinemas, attendance has dropped by 50% in fifteen years. The signs that are on the rise are the shops, hotels and cafes intended for tourists. The Triumph, the Monte Carlo, the Lord Byron ... In the great days, there were up to 40 cinemas on the Champs-Élysées as we can see on a map produced by the Paris-Luxor association. All of them disappeared one after the other. The George-V had been saved by UGC in 1993. Inaugurated in 1938, this cinema takes the name of King George-V in the 1950s.
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With the disappearance of this cinema, which follows that of the Gaumont Champs-Élysées Ambassade in 2016, there are only three rooms left on what is supposed to be the most beautiful avenue in the world: Normandy with its majestic room with a starry sky at 116 bis, the Publicis at 129 and the Marignan which must be redone by the architect Françoise Raynaud (Les Fauvettes, la Pagode). To console yourself, you have to move away a bit and go to the Club de l'Étoile, Balzac or even the MK2 Grand Palais.