It has been a bumpy road for cinemas
Social distancing means movie houses allowed to sell only to one-third capacity
These are tough times for local cinema owners. Movie theatres have been back in business for three weeks, but they’re doing a fraction of their usual ticket sales.
“Target Number One did very well, but we haven’t had any significant new films since,” said Mario Fortin, CEO of three of the city’s leading indie cinemas, Cinéma Beaubien, Cinéma du Parc and Cinéma du Musée.
The English-language Quebec film Target Number One opened July 10 across the province and did well at the box office, helped by a major promotional campaign from Montreal-based distributor Les Films Séville. But the Hollywood studios are not releasing any major new movies for the moment, which is not surprising given the state of the pandemic south of the border. It looks like the first real blockbuster to hit screens will be the much-anticipated thriller Tenet, which is set for release in Canada on Aug. 27.
“Now we have the construction holidays, every day is hot and sunny, so with all of this, we really don’t have the winning conditions for people to return to movie theatres,” Fortin said. “Let’s just say it’s mighty quiet.”
The other issue is that cinemas have to follow the provincial government’s social-distancing rules. So for Fortin’s cinemas, that means only using one out of every three seats. In other words, they can sell tickets only to a maximum of 33-per-cent capacity. Many of his rooms have fairly small capacity so he says that when the rule for indoor capacity jumps from 50 to 250 this coming Monday, it won’t make much of a difference for his theatres.
The biggest room of the three at Cinéma du Parc will be able to go from a capacity of 50 to 75 and the Cinéma du Musée will be able to welcome 100 moviegoers as of Monday. The short version of the economics of this is that you can’t make money.
“I need more staff than usual because we need to clean more and we need to control the public coming in and out,” Fortin said. “My payroll is up at least 40 per cent and we’re making about 30 per cent of what we usually make at the box office. It’s really not good.”
It’s even tougher for a tiny movie theatre such as the Cinéma Moderne on St-laurent Blvd. in Mile End. For this cinema, 33 per cent capacity is 16 people.
“People always knew even before COVID that we were often sold out and that they had to buy their tickets in advance, that with popular films you’d have to buy tickets two weeks ahead of time sometimes,” said Cinéma Moderne interim director general Aude Renaud-lorrain. “But the intimate VIP thing has become almost a bit comic since we reopened. It’s even more complicated with the new rules. So with a capacity of just 16, we’ve been “sold out” quite a few times! With only 16 people! But people like the intimacy.”
One unique aspect at Cinéma Moderne is that the operators insist moviegoers keep their masks on for the duration of the screening. In other cinemas here, you have to wear a mask only until you sit down.
“For sure it’s not fun to have to wear a mask but it’s OK, as long as the film is good,” Renaud-lorrain said.
Guzzo Cinemas president Vincent Guzzo said his biggest problem is the lack of new Hollywood movies. Tenet and Mulan were supposed to be out in July, but both have been pushed back. Guzzo said his business is down 85 per cent compared to last July and he says he’s losing more money with his cinemas open than when they were closed in the spring.
“It does look like someone doesn’t like us,” Guzzo said. “Not only did the movies move, but we also got a problem with the weather . ... There was no rain. I’m a big believer in the rain dance and it ain’t working. The whole month’s got no blockbusters, you add some of the hottest weather, the most rainless period in the last few years and it’s the perfect storm for negativity.”