Cinemas in Russia are closed or open only on weekends

Regional cinemas massively began to reduce their opening hours. The absence of Hollywood products on the posters led to a significant drop in the revenue of the owners of establishments. Many of them are facing complete closure, some have already made the appropriate decision. And while the authorities are thinking about what measures can stop the negative trend, the commissioners for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs in the regions are sounding the alarm.

According to TASS, referring to the words of the business ombudsman from the Chelyabinsk region, Alexander Goncharov, revenue in 2022 decreased by 60% even in comparison with the coronavirus year 2021, when there were numerous restrictions on the operation of cinemas in the country. 

In the city of Zlatoust, establishments with one or two halls have completely closed. The same situation may occur in other cities of the region.

Pavel Solodky, a business ombudsman from Nizhny Novgorod, recorded the closure of an institution in Bogorodsk and the transition to work exclusively on weekends and holidays in Sarov. In the capital of the Nizhny Novgorod region, cinemas are still operating in the same mode, but without opening all the halls. The total reduction in rental for April and May was 70%. 

The revenue from the screening of Russian films does not significantly affect the profitability of the institutions. Cinema owners in small towns find themselves in a particularly difficult situation, said Elena Latyshenko, Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of entrepreneurs from Kuzbass.

According to the Association of cinema owners, the industry will suffer huge losses this year. According to experts, by the beginning of 2023, they may be more than 11.1 billion rubles. Russian-made films for the whole of 2022 will be able to bring only about 6.1 billion rubles in revenue. At the same time, the industry's activities provide jobs for about 35 thousand employees of the cinemas themselves and about 20 thousand more people who participate in the production of film products. 

In April, the number of cinemas across the country decreased by more than a third, amounting to about 3.6 thousand.

The situation is somewhat better in the metropolitan region. The Moscow authorities presented a program of measures to stimulate domestic cinema, hoping to support the industry in this way. From the budget of Moscow, it is planned to pay for all licensing contracts for the screening of domestic films concluded before June 1. At the same time, one cinema network will receive no more than 50 million rubles. 

The Moscow government has already released information about grants that are planned to be allocated for advertising Russian films, as well as to compensate the costs of film crews working on the streets of the capital. The issues of subsidizing the industry in the payment of utility costs, salaries of employees, compulsory licensing of films of foreign production are also discussed.