CINEMAS OF THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD REGION WILL BE CLOSED DOWN

The decree of the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod, Gleb Nikitin, threatens to completely leave the owners of cinemas without viewers. It was stated in a letter sent to the regional Minister of culture and the Head of the region - the heads of 18 cinemas are asking to completely suspend the activities of organizations instead of imposing restrictions that carry the risk of ruin.

The suspension would make it possible to legally force employees to go on unpaid leave, and demand to reduce or cancel the payment of rent from the landlords.

A few days earlier, Governor Nikitin introduced several important amendments to his decree of March 13, aimed at countering the coronavirus pandemic. In particular, it was ordered to prohibit visiting cinemas for certain categories of citizens – those, who have not been vaccinated or are not able to provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test, cannot be allowed into the cinemas.

Cinema executives believe that such amendments could reduce the number of visitors to zero. It should be borne in mind that cinemas are already fulfilling a number of requirements established in the same governor's decree of March 13, 2020.

No more than 60% of tickets are sold for sessions, and spectators seat at a distance of at least one and a half meters from each other.

The authors of the letter point out that the new infection control measures may be ineffective, given that they have not previously brought the desired result. Moreover, the presence of documents about the vaccination or the absence of the disease actually means that there is no need to maintain physical distance.

It is clear that vaccination of the population needs to be stimulated, but restrictions on going to the cinema are clearly not the way that will lead to a positive result, say the heads of cinemas. On the contrary, it can lead to the liquidation of the film industry, while visitors of cultural institutions can easily find other services, for example, staying at home and watching films online.

In total, according to the statistics for May, the Nizhny Novgorod cinemas received a little less than 54 million rubles in revenue.

Last year, when cinemas were closed almost everywhere, the proceeds amounted to 10.4 thousand rubles. For comparison, in the same period of 2019, preceding the pandemic, the revenue of Nizhny Novgorod cinemas exceeded 80 million rubles.