In full inflation, the Film Festival returns with its four-euro tickets

Europe 1 with AFP 2:29 p.m., June 29, 2022

Going to the cinema or filling up your cart?

In the midst of soaring inflation, the dark rooms, which some consider too expensive, hope to bring the public back for the Film Festival, from Sunday to Wednesday, with its seats at four euros for all.

The operation will be an opportunity to strengthen the success of films already released, such as "Elvis" or "Jurassic World: The World After", will benefit a novelty such as "Irréductible" by Jérôme Commandeur and hopes to rekindle the desire to see auteur films, such as "Decision To Leave" by Park Chan-Wook, presented at Cannes and released on Wednesday.

"We fight against a single enemy, the sofa, which is free!"

It is clear that many spectators have still not found their way to the rooms: "We are fighting against a single enemy, the sofa, which is free!", Explains Aurélie Delage, the manager of the Megarama de Garat, in the surroundings. from Angouleme.

According to the latest figures from the CNC, French cinemas, one of the densest networks in the world, sold 62 million tickets in the first five months of the year.

Or an attendance down by a third compared to 2019, a record year before the pandemic, and by 20% compared to the previous ones.

Cinemas are saved by a handful of blockbusters: "Top Gun: Maverick", which exceeded 3.8 million admissions, ahead of the superheroes of "Doctor Strange" and "Batman"... "It's the show that will make the public want to come to the cinema again", discounts Marc-Olivier Sebbag, the general delegate of the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), who observes a "gradual recovery" in attendance.

>> TO LISTEN -

 The opinion of film critics from Europe 1

"Not a luxury"

But at European level, Unic, an association which represents cinemas and has calculated their loss of income at 19 billion euros due to the Covid, is already worried about inflation: "one of the main reasons for not not return to the cinema is the increase in the cost of living”, she has just underlined in her annual report.

Hot topic in France too, where the full price, less than six euros in the public cinemas of Seine-Saint-Denis, can exceed 15 euros for a 3D session in Paris, more than a subscription to a video service in line and its unlimited catalog.

Without counting, outside the cities, the gasoline to go to the cinema.

A survey commissioned by the National Center for Cinematography and Animated Image (CNC) to understand the drop in attendance, and unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, confirmed it: beyond the "loss of habit "to go to the cinema, reason most often indicated, it is the price of the places, the lack of interest for the films and the competition of the platforms which slow down the ardor of the French.

“Financial reasons are the first reasons why we give up spending on leisure,” explains the director general of Credoc, Sandra Hoibian, to AFP.

"Cinema is not a luxury product, but there is still a budgetary question", especially for young people and families.

Operators insist that most tickets purchased in France are discounted, with three-quarters of seats sold for less than 7 euros.

And that the cinema remains the least expensive outing, in comparison with the theater, the stadium or the concerts.

And the cinemas explain that they don't really have a choice.

The four-euro tickets for the Film Festival are "a welcome gift, an exceptional price" which cannot be maintained in the medium term, underlines Mr. Sebbag.

Aurélie Delage, she only earns "a few tens of cents" on a place, and sees with concern climbing the raw materials, including the electricity of the projectors and the air conditioning.

To lower their costs, some cinemas are even thinking of eliminating less frequented screenings, such as the one at 10 p.m.