Taylor Swift, Michel Polnareff, SCH, Beyoncé… Concerts are increasingly taking place at the cinema

This fall, many singers have chosen to broadcast their concert in cinemas. A trend that is having a certain success with fans.

Taylor Swift, Orelsan, Michel Polnareff, SCH, Beyoncé are not all on the bill at the same festival, but what they have in common is that they were invited to the cinema this fall for exceptional broadcasts of their concerts. From large stadiums to dark rooms, the interest for artists is enticing, it is also for fans and exhibitors. But is this really new?

With the screening of the film from her tour “The Eras Tour” last month, Taylor Swift broke a new record in the United States: the first weekend of exhibition grossed more than 100 million dollars. In France, although the film did much less well, it launched an impressive autumn, notably with Orelsan, Michel Polnareff and SCH, in theaters Thursday evening. The Marseille rapper was on July 22 in an exceptional concert at the Stade Vélodrome. Behind the camera, director Stéphane Bohée: “We worked in advance, I went to see the concert at Bercy, it allowed me to work from that. The stadium was full, there were 53,000 people so we had to transcribe the party, the emotions.”

Less than 1% of revenue each year

It’s not yet a tidal wave: Lionel Bertinet, director of cinema at the CNC, wants to temper things. “What we call ‘non-film’, in reality, represents less than 1% of screenings, admissions or box office revenue each year.” The acceleration, for him, is at the turn of the 2010s, “when projection techniques in theaters have evolved significantly since we moved from 35mm film projection to the widespread use of digital projectors.” With prices around 20 euros, the fans find themselves there, the big artists too, Indochine or Mylène Farmer have already proven this in recent years. And operators readily welcome the movement.

“It also makes it possible to bring into theaters an audience that has lost the habit of going there, that goes there little or less, for example obviously the young audience.”

Lionel Bertinet, director of cinema at the CNC

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As for the quality of concert recordings, it is constantly improving. Stéphane Bohée, the director of the SCH concert: “We wanted the recording to make an impact, that it wasn’t like all the others. We wanted the fans to like it, we were delivering a fairly rare work.” After SCH, Beyoncé and her “Renaissance Tour” will arrive in theaters next week. Blockbuster, delirious public and global success to expect.