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Oct 26, 2020Liked by Thomas Flight 🐦

Lovely update, especially your thoughts on a potential end of cinema-going I find intriguing. Over here in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), the big 'corporate' cinemas are doing rather poorly these days. However, with restaurants and bars being closed, I see many of my friends rediscover cinema-going as their hobby.

My local filmhouses are also doing well given the situation, with one -named Kino- standing out above the crowd. They've been screening plenty of new and classic films on their newly acquired 70mm projector. Seeing Tenet in 70mm made the experience unlike anything I could achieve with a home screening. That being said, the success of local filmhouses largely depends on their own creativity in programming and marketing, as well as the benefit of them all having a single subscription model. With a Cineville pass you can go to any 'small' filmhouse for unlimited cinema-going, for only €17,50 and sometimes the small barrier of needing to be a walk-in. I believe the Cineville project is in part subsidized by the EU and our own government, so all in all the risk of overmonetiziation is fairly low. Very glad to have that. Does the US have a system like such?

Looking forward to new videos!

Kind regards,

A uni student who has dabbled in some film courses

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Thanks! We don't have any kind of film subsidies (at least on a national level for theater programming) that I'm aware of, although a lot of states have tax relief for productions.

I'm sure there are some independent and art house theaters, especially in some cities that are doing well, and some are starting to offer memberships. I do suspect that memberships will be a way of sustaining theaters going forward.

I'm glad to hear things are headed that way in the Netherlands! I'm definitely hopeful for the future of cinema!

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