• With more than 5.5 million admissions in 2019, Haute-Garonne is one of the most cinephile departments in France.

  • On June 2, UGC is due to open a new cinema in the Toulouse district of Montaudran and targets a local clientele from the east of Toulouse.

  • The seven-room complex serves the redesign of offers, which in recent years has been less concentrated in the city center.

It is not a multiplex, XXL size, which is due to open on June 2 in the Toulouse district of Montaudran. For this new Toulouse cinema, the UGC group has played the card of an establishment with seven screens, ie 1,330 seats. A new establishment located just in front of the Halle de la Machine et son Minotaure, and a stone's throw from the Pioneer Flight, which "completes the cultural offer of the district," said Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of the Pink City this Thursday.

After having been concentrated in the city center for a long time, in recent years, the cinematographic offer has reached the suburbs.

It must be said that the historic sites of the hypercentre have experienced hazards.

After forty-three years spent on the Roosevelt alleys, in 2019, the UGC was closing its doors.

In decline, it was competing with the neighboring Gaumont Wilson who had made the choice to invest in the latest technological innovations, but also the large complexes present in Blagnac, Fenouillet or Labège.

Toulouse the cinephile

The offer in Toulouse is not limited to these large groups of cinema operators, however.

With more than 5.5 million admissions in 2019 for 40 establishments, including 26 cinemas with a single screen, Haute-Garonne is one of the most cinephile departments in France.

This is also reflected in an attendance index, which relates the number of admissions to the population, which is high, reaching 4.12, when the national average is 3.31 admissions per inhabitant.

Faced with this appetite of the population for dark rooms, there is room for all styles.

Two years ago, when the UGC drew the curtain in the city center, a few kilometers away, further north, Utopia, the independent arthouse network, opened its dark rooms in the Borderouge district, in full development.

“We are setting up where there is a need, in a new district, with a local clientele because we know that this is what comes into play for spectators in 50% of cases for their choice of cinema.

We are also targeting the east of Toulouse, which is quite deprived, unlike the north, ”suggests the director of UGC Montaudran, Benoît Dubost.

However, he knows that he will have to stand out from Gaumont Wilson and Labège, the first benefiting from the service of the two metro lines, the second from a large free car park.

So to attract customers, this new establishment, whose parking will be paid, highlights its eclectic programming, the broadcast of operas and classics of the seventh art, many screenings in subtitled version or its quality laser projection. .

Even if the period of health crisis does not facilitate an opening, with a gauge reduced to 35%, the UGC hopes to benefit from the good results recorded during these first days of deconfinement in dark rooms.

Ultimately, it aims for an annual attendance of 400,000 admissions, double what the UGC in the city center did with the same number of theaters.

Delay for the Megarama project

In a few years, he will have to deal with the arrival of a new competitor west of the Pink City.

A multiplex project with more than 2,000 seats in Basso Cambo has been in the works for several years.

Carried by the operator Mégarama, however, it came up against a land pitfall, one of the owners of the land targeted to accommodate this equipment refusing to sell.

"I hope that this file will be released soon, the latest news has been rather positive", indicates Jean-Luc Moudenc who wants to see this project succeed in order to compensate for the under-equipment of this part of Toulouse and to bring a new touch cultural at Mirail.

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