This summer, Tenet would be the big movie that would save the cinemas after a catastrophic year, but it did not draw in as much money as hoped and the film companies hurried to postpone their big movie premieres.

Star Wars, Avatar, James Bond, Black widow and West side story are just some of them.

- In July, we all hoped for a restart all over the world, but the world does not look the same.

It did not become "that push", especially not in America, which is the world's largest cinema market, says Peter Fornstam, CEO of Swedish cinema.

Can affect Sweden

When the news came that the new Bond film would be moved forward again, it was the nail in the coffin for the cinema chain Cineworld that decided to temporarily close over 660 cinemas in the UK, Ireland and the USA.

Sweden may also be affected in the long term.

- Right now it means nothing, because there are cinemas open, but there is a risk that more cinemas in Sweden will close if there are not enough films to show, says Kristin Engstedt, head of distribution and screening at the Swedish Film Institute.

She wants to emphasize that cinema visits in Sweden at the moment are safe and that most cinemas manage to stay open, but the situation in the world is still dark.

- If there are no more big movies, we will see fewer open cinemas around the world, she says.

The streaming services

In July, the cinema chain AMC (whose shares plummeted after Cineworld's closure announcement) signed an agreement with the film studio Universal that their films will be shown digitally as early as 17 days after the cinema premiere.

Something that had previously been unthinkable.

The films Mulan and Trolls 2 also premiered digitally instead of in cinemas.

The analysis company Mediavision's figures show that during the second quarter of 2020 (until the end of June), household bio-expenditure decreased by 70 percent compared with 2019. The next quarter showed a small increase.

"Not permanent"

However, Mediavision's CEO Marie Nilsson does not believe that this means that the streaming services killed the cinema visit.

Until the pandemic, the cinema window accounted for a very large share of the revenue for a film.

This is not a permanent solution, but digital services have in any case made it possible for the films to be shown.

But the actors do not want life out of the cinema window, I do not think so, she says.