moviegoers were eager : Monday 22 June, the cinemas were reopened in France after one hundred days of closing. "I have waited for this for weeks. For me, this is truly a day of celebration, " says Edward Feinstein, 52 years of age. "It is so good to be there," added this lover of the 7th art, which is posted in front of the cinema MK2 Bibliothèque in Paris before the opening. "I missed a lot," says as Leonard's film student of 19 years, who goes back to see In front of Pixar in this complex projecting twenty films this week.
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At the ticket office of the cinema Varieties, in the centre of Marseille, Pierre Chaillet has the smile behind his mask : "We had 70 spectators for the sessions of 14 hours, for a Monday afternoon with the sun in Marseille, it is well ! "Magali, 57 years old, subscribes to the cinema, is coming" as soon as it has re-opened " : "I hope that there will be a lot of world to compensate for the losses. "The cinema Pathé Bellecour of Lyon, the programme for the first session, in the middle of the afternoon : De Gaulle, Gabriel Le Bomin, with Lambert Wilson, who returns after a first outing in march. It is part of the quarantine film in theaters in France this week, alongside other occasions, such as The Good Wife of Martin Provost.
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2 000 cinemas
In the queue of twenty people, Pascale, retired 62-year-old surgical mask on the face, explained to the Agence France-Presse be coming with her husband since the re-opening by "caution," since " the room will be clean, and this will not necessarily be the case next week ". The vast majority of the 2 000 cinemas French have re-opened Monday and will re-open Wednesday with new health rules laid down by the Federation nationale des cinemas français (FNCF).
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hydroalcoholic Gel, gates left open, reception staff wearing masks, chairs left vacant on each side of the spectators, or groups, sessions, spaced out to avoid crossing, sale of tickets on the Internet privileged or regular disinfection of the premises : everything is put in place to welcome and reassure the spectators. The limitation to 50 % of the rate of filling of the rooms, originally planned, on the other hand has been lifted. "There is more of a limitation of 50 % gauge" for the cinema and entertainment, announced on Sunday the minister of Culture, Franck Riester, who celebrated the reopening by going to see De Gaulle airport on Monday at the UGC ciné cité les Halles in Paris. First cinema of Europe in number of entries, he had already received over 1 950 spectators to 17 hours, " a good start ", declared to the Agency France-Press Emmanuel Delesse, chief operating officer of the group from the UGC.
Session midnight
Some cinemas, such as the 5 Caumartin in Paris, or of the rooms of the circuit Pathé Gaumont in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, and Rennes, were also proposed in the night of Sunday to Monday a meeting of midnight to celebrate the re-opening. The network RC, which consists of 73 complexes in the whole of France, will propose an offer for 5 euros the place for two weeks. "Today, we already have 20 000 bookings ", said to the Agence France-Presse David Scantamburlo, director of marketing for RMC. "We are rather confident on the attendance. "" You feel the audience willing to come back ", also considers Nathanael Karmitz, ceo of MK2 (68 screens in Paris).
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According to a survey released by Médiamétrie published on Wednesday, $ 18.7 million of French have said they intend to go to the cinema in the next four weeks. Happy to re-open their rooms, the operators of cinema oscillate, however, between "enthusiasm" and " anxiety ", according to Richard Patry, president of the FNCF. For all exhibitors, the crisis and the termination of the account according to an estimate of the FNCF nearly 60 million entries that are lost (from early march to late June compared to the previous years), representing a loss of nearly 400 million euros.
