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We are seven withered souls in the room. Together we will see the Australian drama “Babyteeth”, one of the most acclaimed films of the year.
The Swedish media have awarded him four and five. Moviegoers from around the world urge their peers to bring scarves.
No wonder: the love story between the cancer-stricken teenager Milla and the semi-criminal Moses hits all the rods of human emotion.
Still, we are only seven visitors. One Friday, in a salon in the center of Stockholm. I even miss idiots. Plum, who plays with his mobile phones, talks during the movie and is enraged by visitors who ask them to calm down.
We live in crown times. I’ve gone from hating the expression to liking it. Covid-19 is more than a disease, it changes the way we think and act. The habits we adopt can fry things forever.
Cinema is one of those things. When the pandemic broke out, analytics company Omdia investigated how the market was affected. The restrictions led to a global average of 91 percent closing theaters. It happened in Sweden too, despite some other companies going out of business.
Big movies and independent reels postponed their releases. The recordings were stopped. Billions were burned. According to the Swedish Film Institute, 200,000 film workers in Hollywood are at risk of losing their jobs.
But all crises have winners. During the first quarter of this year, Netflix gained 16 million new subscribers. This fall, Disney Plus has trapped 450,000 Swedish households.
Bond is the jewel in the crown of all movies. If it doesn’t even appear on the white screen, is there a movie that can do that?
This also affects losers. This weekend, Bloomberg reported that Netflix and Apple have tried to buy the new James Bond roll “No Time to Die.” To launch it directly on your streaming services.
In the face of the pandemic, the premiere had been postponed a couple of times, the last bidding was April 2021. The project was bleeding, but the MGM company resisted the temptation and announced that the film was not for sale.
The attempt by the flow giants was a declaration of war. Bond is the jewel in the crown of all movies. If it doesn’t even appear on the white screen, is there a movie that can do that?
And what will happen to our national industry, if people stop walking into the dark, toward the red seats? Every year about 50 Swedish films go to the cinema. The cheapest cost around ten million crowns to produce, the most expensive cost ten times as much. If we choose the sofa in front of the living room in the future, Swedish cinema runs the risk of dying, because the money that finances the projects is registered in the cinemas.
Movie chains don’t do much to counteract their own extinction either. When the streaming giants go on the offensive, the biggest player, Filmstaden, stands with his hands in his pockets.
Had I been in his leadership, he would have immediately launched, preferably yesterday, a mega campaign to welcome the Swedes to the salons. A sob like “Babyteeth” would have been the perfect drawing.
In a situation where perseverance disappears and people continue to filthy, despite the risks, the cinema is impeccable. The industry has good opportunities to deal with the pandemic, responsibly, because cinema is the safest collective pleasure we have.
Tickets are sold online, all seats are numbered, and visitors are sober. Everyone is sitting quite still, almost everyone has their mouths closed.
Chains, on the other hand, should open their mouths and explain why cinemas should flourish rather than wither.
