Claudia Roth’s words at the Berlinale were like balm to the soul of the cinema industry, which was hit by the pandemic. “Cultural policy is social policy,” said the new Minister of State for Culture at the opening in February, showing her willingness to continue the commitment of her predecessor Monika Grütters. However, the figures for the first half of 2022, which the Film Fund (FFA) presented on Thursday, dramatically underline that warm words and declarations of intent are of little help to the industry.
Visitor numbers between January and June fell by 38 percent compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, and a total of 33 million cinema tickets were sold nationwide in the first six months. The fact that the income is only slightly less bad at 33 percent has to do with the average ticket price of 9.21 euros today (in 2019 it was 8.60 euros).
Of course, these numbers are not particularly surprising. Anyone who assumes that the situation in cinemas has improved again after the easing of the Covid restrictions probably also believes that the pandemic is already over. The audience obviously doesn’t seem to think so, although FFA board member Peter Dinges puts it less pessimistically in the half-year report: “For the time being, we can say with relief that the cinema industry has weathered the pandemic quite well so far.”
It sounds like a perseverance slogan. Because the fact that this industry, like society as a whole, is facing a tough autumn as a result of rising energy prices – and, in the middle of the biggest crisis in decades, also a football World Cup (in what is traditionally the best cinema season) – is in the FFA -Balance sheet still embezzled.
Even a closer look at the details encourages Dinges. The June numbers 2022 are almost in line with the June numbers from three years ago. That could already indicate a normalization of the situation – or, depending on how you read it, just underline the bad sales figures in summer, independent of the pandemic. According to the motto: It never gets worse. Because the fact that people go to the cinema less is only one truth.
It would be more correct to say that they now go to the cinema differently. Box office gold Tom Cruise was more successful with “Top Gun: Maverick” in German cinemas this summer than in 17 years. So he continues to draw his audience, seemingly better than ever in the pandemic.
This is where the age structure of cinema-goers comes into play as a factor. The younger ones go to the cinema at most for the big event films, while the older audience aged 45 and over, which Björn Hoffmann, chairman of the AG Rental interest group, identifies as an art house target group, continues to be hesitant. The art house and art house cinemas are suffering the most from the dwindling number of visitors, despite the Corona aid that will run until 2023. And the sometimes confusing political debates about new measures do not necessarily arouse the desire of the most loyal clientele to go to the cinema soon, without risk.
However, the signals from politics are not very encouraging for cinema operators and distributors either. The call for a fundamental revision of the Film Funding Act for the next amendment in 2024 is getting louder and louder – in which the important function of the distribution and cinema sectors will finally be recognized in monetary terms. Instead, in May, Claudia Roth again increased the German Motion Picture Fund, which was introduced in 2015, to ninety million euros. Money that – according to the Main Association of German Film Theaters (HDF) – flows almost exclusively into series production.
Politics can also create facts in this way. The pandemic winner streaming is tying up more and more capital from the so-called film funding, which also operates under “economic development” in the Ministry of Culture. The money then ends up with prestige products like “Babylon Berlin”, and in the rare case of luck with a Netflix film like “Nothing New in the West”, which even makes it to the cinema. In the cinemas themselves, where the German film industry generates its sales – and, to paraphrase Roth, where culture and society meet – politicians save money.
The current FFA numbers illustrate the state of desperation and exhaustion in the German cinema industry very well. Meanwhile, she advertises on her own behalf. On September 10th and 11th, the “Cinema Festival” will take place nationwide for the first time in Germany. For a weekend, the HDF initiative wants to bring back memories of the cinema as a meeting place and not just as an event platform. The cinemas have not yet given up on their audience.
