More than 41% of cinemas say they will not be able to reopen with social distancing measures in place, a new report reveals.
An average rise in costs of 20%, matched with a 50% loss of capacity, means most of the 497 respondents predict that with social distancing in place they would only survive a maximum of three months.
62% of those who believe they will not be able to open say this is because of a reduction in seat capacity and as such income, with 28% not able to open due to the physicality of their building.
Respondents offered various potential solutions to their financial woes, with 72% believing a government ticket subsidy would enable venues to open, and 41% thinking grants to purchase PPE would help.
Of the 59% of venues that say they could reopen with social distancing measures in place, various measures were offered to ensure safety. The most popular were face masks and gloves for staff, perspex screens for the box office and hand sanitiser stations. A small minority proposed perspex screens for auditoriums and temperature machines.
New guidelines from the government approved cinemas reopening no early than July 4, in time for Christopher Nolan’s latest mega-blockbuster Tenet, originally scheduled to open on July 17, although the new trailer released just last week notably failed to include a release date.
A majority of surveyed venues said they plan to reopen in September, but 14% of respondents are not expecting to open their doors to the public until 2021.
The main concerns for these venues came out as a tie between the practicalities of reopening with the social distancing measures in place and audience confidence levels leading to a lack of admissions.
One anonymous respondent said: “Cinemas should be asking for support to remain closed and keep on staff rather than rush to reopen and create health risks which in the long term would be more damaging. Stay closed, stay safe, stay solvent.”
The survey was carried out by the Independent Cinema Office, the UK’s national body for supporting independent cinemas, film festivals and exhibitors. The 497 respondents were made up of independent cinemas, film festivals, community cinemas and a small number of multiplexes.
The Covid-19 crisis came at a particularly unhelpful time for UK cinemas, with 2019 admissions of over 176 million, which equates to over £31.25 billion at the box office, just shy of 2018’s 177 million, the highest level in 50 years.
2020 started off looking just as financially strong, especially for independent cinemas with the historic Oscar wins for South Korean black comedy thriller Parasite driving audiences in their masses to the cinema.
Bong Joon-Ho’s film became the highest-grossing foreign film of all time in the UK, surpassing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, with sales of over £11.8 million.
3x Oscar winner 1917 also pulled in big money early in the year, with the British war film making nearly $57 million in the UK, becoming eOne’s highest grossing release ever in the UK.
Further success came with the release of Robert Egger’s dark and comical tale of maritime madness The Lighthouse, which brought in big crowds for independent cinemas, with an opening week per venue average narrowly beaten by 1917.
Jason Wood, Creative Director: Film & Culture at HOME cinema in Manchester, tweeted on February 3 that the cinema had just had its best weekend ever, saying it was “mainly down to The Lighthouse.”
Just one week later, with Parasite opening in the UK on February 7, Jason tweeted saying that figure had already been beaten.
It looked for a while like the stars might have aligned and independent cinemas were to get a vital boost with the success of these films, but the global pandemic has stopped that firmly in its tracks, and those surveyed do not see it as a particularly bright future for the time being.
The full report can be viewed here.
