The subject of small-town cinemas came up in the German news today. For those who've never been to Germany....I would describe the movie theater situation at two levels.
The first is the metropolitan city situation, with six to twelve halls, and draws a minimum of 2,000 people nightly. These operations usually have no problem in maintaining a profit. The second is the small-town operation which usually has one to two halls, and might on a Friday or Saturday night draw 250 people. These small operations make a marginal profit.
The German government is concerned over the small operations, and this week....created a 'grant' for the small operations. ARD (public TV) reported on the basic finance story.
A 17-million Euro pot of money has been created. As long as your town is 50,000 residents or smaller....your cinema operation can go and request a grant (up to 315,000 Euro for a multi-hall operation, or up to 60,000 Euro for a one-hall operation).
The hope is that the operators will flip the money toward renovation....putting better sound systems, or projection equipment.
I used to live in a small village and in the next town over (8,000 residents).....they had a one-hall cinema operation. It was something that you'd expect out of the 1930s. It was mostly run by one family, with everyone chipping in to sell the tickets, make the pop-corn, and run the projection booth. On a typical Friday night, they'd have 300 people show up. For weekends, they never had trouble with attendance. But for the middle of the week? They'd run these artsy-type of movies (French, with German-sub-titles), and I doubt if you'd have more than 40 people show up.
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