Cinemas open with blockbusters and stars
After months of negotiations, cinemas nationwide are now set to reopen. The operators are aiming for a restart for thursday (1.7.) an. The goal is a uniform opening in all federal states.
For this, several cinema associations had made arrangements with film distributors. The hope is that new films will be seen at as many venues as possible. In fact, several blockbusters and high-profile films have been announced for the day.
It looks like many distributors were just waiting to finally show their new productions on big canvases. Spectacular action, which is particularly effective in the cinema, is promised, for example, by "godzilla vs. Kong" with an epic battle of the two titans and the video game adaptation "monster hunter" with milla jovovich. But this year’s oscar winner "nomadland" is also worth a visit to the cinema: the drama about a widow who packs her belongings into her car and lives in it from then on won three of hollywood’s top awards and captivates with its magnificent shots of the u.S. Landscape.
A german original is also involved in the relaunch of the cinemas: in "catweazle," comedian otto plays a scatterbrained wizard from the middle ages who, through a mishap, ends up in the future – our present – and suddenly has to deal with all kinds of strange things. He will be joined by julius weckauf (known from "der junge muss an die frische luft") and katja riemann. Other new movies include "nobody" with bob odenkirk, who fans know from the series "breaking bad" and "better call saul," and "the spy" with benedict cumberbatch.
How well the cinema relaunch will succeed this year is still unclear at this time. The AG kino – gilde had already criticized that the cinemas were "confronted with a foderal patchwork of requirements". According to the association, the time at which cinemas can reopen varies.
This was also criticized by the association HDF kino. The conditions were "partly still unclear, intransparent or not verhaltnismabig", explained the association on monday. He demanded that the rules be standardized – so that, for example, only one space should be left free next to each occupied place as a distance. In addition, there was no obligation to wear a mask on the pitch.
The cinestar group had also raised concerns. She plans an opening of her nationwide 49 lichtspielhauser to the 1. July. In addition to the uniform date, the reopening must also be tied to other framework conditions in order to enable the cinemas to operate in an economically viable manner at all, said managing director oliver fock. This includes the elimination of the medical mouth and nose protection at the court to allow the consumption of food and drink.
In the past year the cinemas had been closed already in the spring several weeks. But even though they were able to show movies again for a few months in the summer, 2020 was a disastrous year for the industry: in germany alone, cinema attendance plummeted. Last year, around 38.1 million tickets were sold – about 80.5 million fewer than a year earlier. According to figures from the german federal film board (FFA), this corresponds to a drop of around 68 percent.