The Grand Rex, a Parisian complex of 7 cinemas since 1932, among the largest in Europe, will close in August for the first time in its history, due to the drop in attendance and the absence of blockbusters, a consequence of the health crisis.
"Between the drop in attendance and the insufficient supply of films, particularly American films, which usually draw attendance in the summer, we have decided to close our doors from the evening of August 3. Our reopening at the end of August will depend on the films at the poster, "said Alexandre Hellmann, director of the Grand Rex on Monday.
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"We are wasting less money closing than keeping the teams going with this demoralizing attendance. Hopefully, we hope to reopen on August 26 with a big American release, before a Harry Potter marathon that we will be offering anyway to start. of 29 ", added Alexandre Hellmann.
"We don't have enough new content to offer you"
After the postponement of Christopher Nolan's Tenet , which the theater operators were counting on to restart attendance, Disney announced the indefinite postponement of its big-budget movie Mulan , a live-action version of the famous cartoon.
In a message on its Facebook page, the Parisian cinema underlines that this temporary closure is taken "to compensate for the reality of the moment". "American films in particular see their releases postponed every day. We therefore do not have enough new content to offer you", adds the complex.
Located on the main boulevards in Paris, Le Grand Rex has a room with 2,700 seats, equipped with a giant screen of 300 m2, and also hosts concerts. A month after their reopening as part of the progressive deconfinement, French cinemas are facing a general drop in attendance, according to the National Federation of French Cinemas, with theaters two-thirds empty.