France has proven yet again it is the world capital of cinema.
What’s happening in France is quite remarkable. Having reopened its theaters on June 22, the country managed to sell 850,000 and 900,000 admissions through Sunday [via Variety], with the million tickets sold mark set to be hit on Tuesday. It’s roughly 50% less than an average week in June, but considering there are no new releases being screened, only 60% of theaters have reopened and fears of a second wave of COVID-19, it’s an “outstanding result that is beyond our most optimistic forecast,” said Eric Marti at Comscore France.
Today, most of France’s 2,040 cinemas and 5,700 screens are active with very few social distancing restrictions on admissions. “A cap of 50% of auditorium capacities had been initially set before being abandoned on the eve of reopening, and the mask is only mandatory outside of the auditorium,” said Marc-Olivier Sebbag at the FNCF.
So, basically, France just said “fuck it” to the whole social restrictions thing and went back to business as usual, as if a pandemic had never happened. The Variety article states that French theater owners are praying that Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” gets released on August 12th.
Meanwhile, the rest of Europe is still hesitant in going back to movie theaters. Most notably, Germany’s cinema attendance is between 70% and 90% down and Spain’s is between 90% and 95% down on an average week in June, for instance.