The closure of cinemas for an indefinite period as of Monday has plunged the industry into uncertainty. From theater owners to film distributors and producers, the players in the field must take another hard blow.
The news of the immediate closure of cinemas is “like a sledgehammer right in the middle of the front” for Mario Fortin, Chairman and CEO of Cinema Beaubien, Cinema du Parc and Cinema du Musée.
“With a few hours notice, it’s the record,” he raises, without hiding great frustration. We have always been a good customer, we have always complied with all requests, we closed when we had to and spent thousands of dollars to [instaurer les mesures sanitaires]… As we speak, we are discouraged. ”
Monday afternoon, we did “a firefighter’s job” to “put out fires as best as possible”. We had to contact and reimburse all those who had tickets for the screenings after 5 p.m., plan to close the establishments, “see what we were going to do with it.” [les] employees ”.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
The Beaubien Cinema, like all the other cinemas in the province, had to close its doors at 5 p.m. Monday.
The shock is all the more brutal as the news arrives during the holiday season, the most lucrative of the year. Already last year, at this date, the cinemas were unable to welcome customers.
Among producers and distributors of Quebec films, the decision to close theaters has been described as a “very hard blow”, even if the stakeholders in the field insisted on the fact that it was not necessary to “give up”.
Goodbye happiness leaded
Christian Larouche, who is both producer and distributor, is all the more concerned about the situation as his feature film Goodbye happiness had just been launched in theaters last weekend after an intense promotional campaign across Quebec.
It’s going to be a disaster. The whole industry is being hit with a baseball bat. And we didn’t see it coming.
Christian Larouche, producer and distributor
In this first weekend in theaters, Ken Scott’s film grossed $ 120,000 at the box office, which placed it in second place behind Spiderman, to 2 million. “The young people went to the movies, but I think the 40 and over people wanted to protect their families and stayed at home,” said Mr. Larouche, whose film was shown on 78 screens.
There is no question for him to offer the feature film online. “We will wait for the theaters to reopen and relaunch it,” he said.
At Films Seville, President Patrick Roy recalled that he still had two films in theaters, The Time Harvester by Francis Leclerc and Clifford the big red dog. “We were trying to keep the maximum number of copies available with the arrival of the Holidays,” he analyzes. We felt we were able to have a good box office during this period and it all collapses today. ”
The distributor must now turn to his next feature film, The 355, a feminine thriller, slated for release on January 7. “We have canceled our advertising campaign in Quebec for this film and we are waiting to see what English Canada will do, where theaters are still open at 50%,” he said.
Producer of The Time Harvester, Antonello Cozzolino (Attraction Images) also deplores the situation. “With excellent Quebec films, the momentum was resuming and there we are back to square one,” he says. It tests the morale and conviction of producers and theater operators. Governments need to stay the course when it comes to production. The industry must weather this storm. ”
Cinemas, yet safe places
“One thing is certain, we are taking a hard hit,” said Éric Bouchard, co-president of the Association of Quebec Cinema Owners. We hope it will be for a short time, because cinemas are safe places. ”
Two other distributors, Louis Dussault from K-Films d’Amérique and Benjamin Hogue from Films from March 3, questioned Quebec’s strategy of closing cinemas.
“It is an unjustified measure,” says Mr. Dussault, whose next film, That’s life, arrived in theaters on Friday. All the more so, and everyone knows it, that with the cinema gauge [capacité à 50 % ], there was no risk of contagion. There has never been one since the start of the pandemic. I am furious. It is irresponsible. ”
“I just do not understand the inconsistency of cinemas that close and restaurants that remain open, said Mr. Hogue, whose next film, the documentary Losing Mario by Carl Leblanc, is due out on January 14. It doesn’t take a public health expert to know that the risk of contagion is much higher in a restaurant where people drink wine without a mask than in a movie theater with distancing. ”
If the closing of the cinemas is prolonged, Mr. Hogue is well annoyed, because the film Losing Mario has a license to broadcast on TV a few weeks after its theatrical release. “If I can’t postpone it, I don’t know what I’m going to do. ”
Same story with Vincent Guzzo, who observed an 8% increase in revenues last weekend (compared to 2019). “I am totally surprised and flabbergasted,” said the owner of the Guzzo cinemas, who also cannot understand why restaurants can remain open, but cinemas cannot.
The rise [d’achalandage] shows that people were ready for a return to normal life. The yoyo doesn’t work. So-called subsidies don’t work either.
Vincent Guzzo, owner of Guzzo cinemas
Vincent Guzzo considers that government financial assistance is not enough to compensate for the losses he suffers by once again closing the doors of the cinemas that bear his name. “For the first time, it’s total nothing and I have no idea what we’re going to do. ”
Mario Fortin does a lot for his fifty employees and the thousands of others in the province, “who will find themselves unemployed during the holidays and we do not know for how long”. The financial support allows you not to collapse under fixed expenses, but “it will not compensate the employees or the creators of films,” he says. “It will not compensate people who need to take their minds off their feet, to see films to breathe a little and find a semblance of normality. ”
Despite disappointment and incomprehension, Éric Bouchard remains positive. “The Minister of Culture said he [le gouvernement] would be there for us and until now, it has been the case, confided Mr. Bouchard, who also owns the Saint-Eustache cinema. Nothing leads us to believe that he will not be present yet. ”