Tonight, First Aid Kit – sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg – will perform together with little brother Isak Benjamin at a gala evening at Zita, featuring a range of speakers, film viewings, quizzes, and more. However, the economic downturn for the cinema is not due to a lack of audience, according to Åsa Widman Falewicz, who describes Zita as "well-attended".
It's tough due to inflation and the skyrocketing rent. But we're not facing a cliff and we have a good opportunity to turn this around, we have a plan ahead.
Zita is located in central Stockholm and the management is now working hard to be able to stay there.
Narrow films for a broad audience
Our mission is to provide narrow films to a broad audience at good ticket prices. Without Zita, there will be no broad film landscape in Stockholm, it's so important with different types of cinemas.
The country's cinemas for quality films are otherwise the type of cinemas that are doing best, according to Jens Lanestrand, operations manager at Biografen/bio.se, which gathers the country's independent cinemas.
They have a strong rebound after the pandemic. They also have a faithful audience and work closely with them, with festivals, lectures, and more. I believe that cinemas need to have that to reach through the noise.
Lacking blockbuster films
The situation is worse for commercial cinemas in medium-sized cities, such as Filmstaden and Svenska Bio's cinemas, which are dependent on blockbuster films that draw in the audience.
There's a lack of big films right now that help fill the auditoriums night after night, says Jens Lanestrand.
