Germany is joining the US and the UK to launch a September weekend cinema initiative called Kinofest where all tickets will cost just €5.
Taking place September 10-11, the aim is to reignite cinema-going with German audiences and increase footfall in German cinemas. The theatrical business is struggling post-pandemic with box-office receipts and admissions falling by 33.8% and 38.8% respectively in the first six months of 2022, compared to the same period in 2019, according to figures released this week by the German Federal Film Board (FFA)
Receipts grossed €305.7m and admissions reached 33.2m from January to June, 2022.
The Hauptverband deutscher Filmtheater (HDF KINO), whose 600 members operate around 75% of Germany’s 4,900-plus cinema screens, is collaborating on the nationwide event with the arthouse exhibitor associations AG KINO - Gilde and the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit as well as the distributor trade associations Verband der Filmverleiher (VDF) and AG Verleih.
“All those involved in the industry have wanted for some time to create a Kinofest in Germany like the ones already existing in other countries,” said Christine Berg, managing director of HDF KINO. “We are now at last taking this step and our goal is to reach a broad audience together with the cinemas, to celebrate cinema and bring it permanently back into conversation.”
High- profile titles on release in time for the weekend include Studiocanal’s psychological horror thriller Orphan: First Kill and Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: No Way Home - The More Fun Stuff Version which both open on Thursday, September 8.
New arthouse titles will include Cédric Klapisch’s Rise (Studiocanal) and Blerta Basholi’s award-winning debut Hive, while Weltkino and Universal Pictures will be looking to appeal to young audiences with Teresa Fritzi Hoerl’s music comedy Alle für Ella, starring singer-songwriter and actress Lina Larissa Strahl.
Further titles include Constantin Film’s release of Doris Dörrie’s latest feature film Xx (Freibad) and George Miller’s fantasy film Three Thousand Years of Longing , released via Leonine.
The big local titles include Constantin’s comedy Gugelhupfgeschwader, the eighth film charting the adventures of the Bavarian village policeman Franz Eberhofer, directed by Ed Berger.
In its first 24 days in the cinemas, Gugelhupfgeschwader has already passed 1m admissions, taking the top spot in the box-office charts for two weeks and is now at third place behind Constantin’s After Forever and the German comedy Die Kängaru-Verschwörung from X Verleih.
A poster campaign and individual measures by the participating cinemas and distributors will draw cinema-goers’ attention to the weekend event and will be complemented by a new image campaign called “KINO. FÜHLST DU” (CINEMA. YOU FEEL) to promote the unique emotional, visual and aural experience of seeing a film at a cinema as opposed to at home.
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