Wednesday’s reopening of Kinepolis group's cinemas in Luxembourg went smoothly, with some success for the film "Master".

If movie fans missed their cinema fix in recent months, they didn’t show it on Wednesday when Kinepolis reopened its cinemas in the grand duchy. “The first sessions were rather calm,” said Christophe Eyssartier, head of the group in Luxembourg. "It's normal, it's the first day, in the middle of the week. We are waiting for the end of the weekend to make a first assessment.” It is also difficult to compare this reopening to that of last summer, which had followed a long period of lockdown.

Eyssartier did not provide figures on pre-sales for the rest of the week, but noted the success of Indian film “Master”, which has already registered 1,000 bookings. “This was surely a case of word of mouth surrounding the success of this film," he said. New screenings had to be added to meet the demand. Finding new releases was, however, “not easy” he recalls, at a time when cinemas in neighbouring countries remain closed. “We were still able to put something in place that meets all tastes.” Screening this week are Luxembourg-Irish coproduction  “Wolfwalkers”, “The Witches”, “Big Trip”, and two Netflix productions, “The Midnight Sky” and “Mank”.

Eyssartier says in any case he is “happy” to have been able to reopen and “offer an alternative to customers”, while allowing employees to return to work.

Audiences will have to wait until the weekend to watch a film at the two Caramba cinemas. First screenings are scheduled for Friday afternoon and run through Sunday. “We are going to get off to a smooth start,” said Raymond Massard, head of the non-profit organisation Images Animées, which manages the Kursaal in Rumelange and the Waasserhaus in Mondorf-les-Bains. If audiences show up, Massard says he may consider a weekday schedule as well. But even though pre-sales have been slow, “people tend to buy at the box office,” he explains.

This article was originally published on Paperjam.lu in French