“What’s surprised, even shocked me, was the diversity of the films that did well,” says Marti. “All the audience has come back: older, younger — every demographic.”
The French bounceback is substantially stronger than at this time last year, with a million more admissions than between June 24-28, 2020 — the initial “reopening weekend” after France’s first COVID-19 lockdown. France has been leading the way, but as theaters across Europe reopen, box office returns have been similarly encouraging.
“Everyone’s very, very happy with what we’ve seen in France, those images of people queuing up at eight in the morning to watch movies,” notes Laura Houlgatte Abbott, CEO of European cinemas group UNIC. “But we’ve also seen strong numbers from Denmark, from the Netherlands, from Estonia, Poland, and Spain. All in all, it’s been a real feel-good story.”
From Wednesday, France will lift all capacity restrictions on theaters, just in time for the five-day Fête du Cinéma, an annual promotional event where cinema chains nationwide offer film fans discounted tickets to help launch the summer season.
People get caught up with the 50% capacity limit but UK cinemas in normal circumstances don't get anywhere near that level, F9 opened in 600 cinemas 2,000+ screens over 4 days with about 12 shows per screen and 100 seats with 50% reduction about 10m seats available F9 sold 1m
RT : French, U.K. Revival Driving Hope for a European Box Office Rebound