The theater around the cinema

Cinema No trace of crisis: The genre
movie theater is alive and kicking and, after record years, is moving back into
slightly quieter climes. The cinema business is in crisis, was
recently in Der Spiegel. Especially the large multiplex cinemas
are standing in front of empty auditoriums in Germany and are struggling, due to dramatic
of declining viewer numbers. The industry is
the triumphant advance of the DVD and now of all times there is a lack of
there was a lack of attractive films. "The range of films on offer this year was too
monotonous," says Erwin C.
Dietrich to declines that are also reflected in this year's Swiss
cinema business. The audience is the one with special effects
tired of high-bred Hollywood productions and did not want to
more fantasy movies, no more
Disasters and not another Spiderman. "In 2005 we had
not a single German movie that made millions," says
Dietrich. There used to be at least one 007 every year,
a
safe business in each case. But even that failed to materialize this year. The
75-year-old Zurich movie theater king recently presented his two big
Cinemax and Metropol movie theaters to the
Kino-Theater-AG (Kitag) and is retiring from his job due to his age.
profession.

Is the Swiss movie theater business facing similar adversity to the German one?
"The curve is always moving up and down, and that applies to the USA, to
Europe, and we are no exception here in Switzerland either," says
Grégoire Schnegg, General Director of Pathé Switzerland. The
The struggle for survival of German multiplex cinemas, on the other hand, is a
Part of the problem, which would not have to exist in this form, would be
factors were taken into account when opening the movie theaters.
Today, Germany suffers from too many movie theaters that are
the booming 90s as true popcorn temples sprang lovelessly from the ground.
and with their ambience they almost take today's visitors into
to take flight. According to Schnegg, the clarification of the
The easiest way to calculate the needs situation. "The rest depends on the
movie offerings, the weather and football." But despite DVDs and
The success curve for home cinema continues to rise.
Apparently, it is in the nature of things that the cinema regularly
is declared dead, the number of visitors hardly ever declines. The fact that this
after the cinema revival of 2003 is now happening again, makes "something
musty". Because cinema, as Erwin C. Dietrich from
decades of experience, is as a social occasion, as a
Community experience, unchanged and also the
form of entertainment that is the cheapest to have. In addition, the
industry and for some time now has been offering the public in the
auditorium of individual cinemas, where, for example, Prosecco
and snacks are served.

The cinema marketing company Cinecom also recently made a statement in a press release and said
denied the reports about the crisis in the cinema industry.
Mathias Luchsinger, CEO of Cinecom, wants to draw a comparison with Germany.
cannot be accepted. Luchsinger speaks of severe overscreening, which
Cinema owners had planned past the audience and had far too many cinemas
set up. "It's different for us, we don't have any overscreening in
Switzerland, the multiplex cinemas are developing well and have visitors
won." Here and there there will be
In contrast, there will be land consolidation in the country, as there are still an above-average number of land cinemas.
With more than 18 million visitors, the
cinema industry peaked in 2003. In 2004, the figure was again
17.7 million and is expected to increase by between 15
and 16 million, estimates Luchsinger. "The cinema owners
have earned a lot in the past two years and are now coming
back to a level like in the 90s." For Luchsinger, the conjured-up crisis is nothing more than normality, where you
however, still 10 percent above the average for the years 1995 to
2000.

However, the uninterrupted spread of the DVD or the
Movie downloads replace going to the movies? "DVDs and iPods are things that happen
in private, but we go to the movies together," says Luchsinger.
It would be similar to if, because of music downloads, there were suddenly fewer
concerts take place. The money flows into the coffers of the
film industry, which in turn produces films with it. But so
nothing works all by itself. Cinema owners are therefore constantly investing
in the facility, in sound quality and future technologies, for the
Example 3D. There is also no skimping on advertising in Swiss
movie theaters. Where in Germany up to 25 minutes of advertising are shown,
is limited to an average of 12 minutes. "In
You can't see Germany in most multiplex cinemas because of all the advertising
times the ads with the free seats."   

René Worni