ANKARA

The gradual normalization process, which began on June 1 as part of the COVID-19 pandemic measures, will begin on July 1 for “movie theaters” in accordance with demand from movie theater investors.

In the Interior Ministry circular on “June standardization measures”, cinemas were allowed to operate from June 1 with the 50% capacity limit, but will open on July 1.

Speaking to public agency Anadolu, Fevzi Genç, the general secretary of the Association of Cinema Investors (SİSAY), of which 95% of Turkish cinemas are members, spoke about the process of opening cinemas.

Genç said that in early May, when the opinions of industry representatives regarding the standardization process were taken, they called for the opening on June 11. He said they wanted to act in parallel with the government’s normalization process but that the gradual normalization process that started on June 1 was a “sudden decision” for them.

“Opening cinemas is not as easy as opening restaurants. The film industry has different players. It works differently. Some of the stakeholders are international film companies. It is not possible to prepare and revive the industry in a day. This is why we spoke to film companies and told the Ministry of Culture and Tourism that the date of July 1 would be better. We work closely with them. He forwarded this request to the Ministry of the Interior.

About 95 percent of our members have agreed to theaters opening July 1. Some want to open in July, while others want to open in August or September. But we don’t want to delay it too much, after all, the country wants to normalize; people want to go to the movies. We are going to make a loss in July and August, but we want to contribute to this normalization, ”he said.

Declaring that they know the films are missing from the public, Genç said he wants to welcome them.

Genç said they want to make a strong opening on July 1, that they’ve been talking to film companies about that, and that big movies need two to three weeks of advertising time.

“We want to show Oscar-winning films. The Oscar winner ‘Nomadland’ will be released. We spoke to the film company. We are also working on other Oscar winning films. We have a lot of films because we have been closed for a long time. We didn’t have a movie to show last summer, but now we have it because American theaters and the film industry have opened up, ”he said.

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