Toulouse. Cinemas are resuming good activity, and this is not necessarily linked to the release of Avatar 2
By Nina Hossein-Zadeh
Published on
For moviegoers, followers of director James Cameroon, it took 13 years. On December 14, 2022, Avatar 2 went out to the cinema. In the establishments, the rooms showing the film were stormed. This is the case at Toulouse where spectators must reserve their place in advance. After difficult years of Covid-19do Toulouse residents finally want to go back to the cinema?
A program that seduces
Jean-Baptiste Salvat is director of Blagnac CGR cinema. Unsurprisingly, there are movies that draw crowds to his establishment. “On a dice beautiful activities with some exceptional releases,” he confided to Toulouse news. During the year 2022, Avatar 2 or Spiderman no coming home were part of it.
Indeed, in the Gaumont place Wilson cinema at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 27, Toulouse residents rush to the terminals. They planned to come back the same evening to attend a session of James Cameroon’s feature film, but no more places are available. At the reception, no way to have one: you will have to come back another time.
Jean-Baptiste Salvat welcomes this renewed activity, to see that people are leaving their homes again to enjoy the atmosphere offered by a cinema, but he is categorical. The return to theaters is not a phenomenon solely linked to the release of big films.
French films in the spotlight
Since the October 2022 holidays, the Blagnac cinema has organized a very specific program. The latter does honor to French films. Jean-Baptiste Salvat welcomes it because it is these outings that have given the Toulouse people in his cinema.
“Our business relies on these smallest French films that are a hit in our establishment. I could cite, among others, Simone, the trip of the centuryor November, two films that I continue to show in my cinemas”, specifies the head of the CGR Blagnac. According to him, it is not “a big film every three months” that allows him to make good income, but rather to ensure “good complementary programming”.
To do this, in October, Jean-Baptiste Salvat also honored family films such as Belle and Sébastien: new generation, The little Nicolas we Samurai Academy.
Preview organizer
To attract his audience, the director of the CGR Blagnac is betting on animation. “It has always been important and it works well so I put a lot on these meetings. » For example, an evening dirty dance was programmed recently, and “even if we have all seen the film many times, it motivates”. Dancers, artists, actors, Jean-Baptiste Salvat brings great speakers to his establishment.
Soon, families could go to the preview of Pattie and the Wrath of Poseidon. The public will be able to learn more about the dubbing of voices, confides Jean-Baptiste Salvat. The meeting is given on January 11, 2023 at 4 p.m. A few days later, it was the teams ofAlibi which he will receive on January 26 for a preview at 8:45 p.m. “There is a lot of expectation on such events. There is a real enthusiasm, people are waiting for the release ofAlibi so you will have to book in advance,” he advises.
A new competitor in the world of cinema
The world of culture has been strongly impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic and it is not Jean-Baptiste Salvat who will say the opposite. Coupled with concerns about the virus, habits have changed. “People are turning inward,” he says. In the echoes he hears around him, he noticed that Toulouse people prefer “not to mix with others”.
“My competitor today is not the Gaumont cinema. No, it’s the sofa, the TV and home pizza delivery,” he explains. For his part, the headteacher is trying to do everything possible to give his fellow citizens a taste for going out. His efforts seem to be paying off.
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