Ongoing screen success
Cinema The young are running away from the moving pictures. Multiplexes only create a temporary turnaround.
Although last year for the medium of cinema
comparison with the previous year was not possible (see box), the
Advertising Week nonetheless made the cautious trend statement that the number of
moviegoers are tending to decline because there are fewer young people. This
seemed to go to the movies more often.
The second part of this assumption is now based on the new
cinema ratings turned out to be incorrect - at least for the survey period
April 2004 to March 2005: The (still) existing young people return to the company.
tend to turn their backs on the medium of cinema. Throughout Switzerland, cinemas in
the target group of 14- to 34-year-olds was 26,000 people lower.
weekly reach (-9.4%). That makes 1.3 million less per year
young visitors to the Hollywood temples. The most obvious
Cinemas in the French-speaking part of Switzerland have to accept a drop in reach.
decline amounts to 17.6 percent. In this target group, Ticino is
stable, German-speaking Switzerland loses 6.8 percent. No major
There were changes in Zurich and Basel, while Berne was able to increase its
25 and Lugano even improved by 60 percent, in the remaining
Large agglomerations suffered losses of between 20 and 30 percent.
The result is all the more astonishing given that in most of these regions
multiplex cinemas have opened in recent years - in St.Gallen
for example, in Lucerne or in Geneva and Lausanne. Whether last year's
film offerings or excessively high admission prices led to the decline - currently
subject of an investigation by the price watchdog - will probably be
only the next Mach Basic will show.
What is striking, however, is that the medium of cinema across all age groups
only has to accept a small loss of range. The entire
Although the weekly reach of 45,000 visitors is up by 12,000 people
lower, but the change remains within the confidence range. Only the
French-speaking Switzerland also lost the most here (-9.8%).
Surprisingly, Basel's cinemas are still able to offer
Multiplex cinemas on the Swiss-German border in Weil am Rhein
more visitors than in the previous year (+22.6 percent). One
increased demand for cinema seats is also evident in Lugano (+44.4
percent).
Markus Knöpfli
