The holiday film is struggling to get off the ground at the Royan cinema

As the sun reigns over the Royan region, the director of the Lido, Guillaume Mousset, scans the sky, praying for rain. Especially since the lack of exciting films this summer is currently hampering business.

Guillaume Mousset cracks a smile. He's just noticed that gray skies are coming to the Royan region in the coming days. And for him, that's good news. "Our biggest competition here is the beach," recalls the director of the Royan cinema Le Lido. To pinpoint the best day for attendance since the beginning of summer, you have to go back to Sunday, July 6, when the sky turned a little angry. "We reached 2,600 admissions. That day, we also had a free screening of Lorie Pester's film "The Mysteries of the Regulus Caves," in partnership with the radio show Chut… On écoute la télé!. Otherwise, on hot, sunny days, we average around 400 admissions," he confides.

The ideal time to boost attendance is for the rain to start in the morning. "People see on the news that the weather won't be good all day and might plan to go to the movies in the afternoon. On the other hand, if it only rains in the morning or afternoon, it's not good. In the first case, they wait to go to the beach, and in the second, they're a bit caught off guard," explains Guillaume Mousset. It just goes to show that the film industry depends on very little.

The weather isn't the only reason for this somewhat gloomy start to the film season. While the Lido's business has fallen by 20% since the beginning of 2025, compared to a very good 2024, it's also because film releases aren't drawing crowds. "There aren't any big releases this summer. Last year, we had "The Count of Monte Cristo," which had nine million admissions nationally, and the animated film "Inside Out 2," which had eight million. This year, we have films that won't reach five million admissions. "Jurassic World Renaissance," released on July 4, for example, has reached 1.4 million."

For box office hits, we'll have to wait until the end of the year, with the highly anticipated release of "Avatar 3" or "I Who Loved You" on October ^1st , a biopic about the couple Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. "It's right in our target audience. I already know it's going to be a hit," ticks Guillaume Mousset's calendar, who can count on a clientele of regulars, mostly retired. The sociology of the Royan population, with an average age of 56 and comfortable purchasing power, allows the cinema to regularly break attendance records. For "N'avoue jamais," a comedy for graying temples released in 2024 with André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma and Thierry Lhermitte, the Lido had the highest attendance in France during the second week of operation, ahead of the UGC des Halles in Paris.

In the meantime, we have to get through the summer. To boost admissions, the director has decided to lower the ticket price to five euros every Thursday, compared to 9.40 euros the other days of the week. And if he could make August a lousy month, that would be even better... Not sure everyone would agree.