After the success of the June 25 play-week around the world you could be forgiven for expecting a drop-off in the subsequent play-week but the first week of July proved another winner in many markets.
France, which saw its annual FÊTE DU CINÉMA €4 ($4.75) ticket promotion run June 30-July 4 weekend, delivered massive admissions taking France across its Stage 4 recovery target on Gower Street’s Blueprint To Recovery for the first time (see Growth Trackers below). The Stage 4 target is measured as a play-week equivalent to the median play-week of the last two pre-pandemic years (2018-2019) – in France’s case a week delivering 3.4 million admissions. It also delivered 92% of its Stage 5 target (4.3 million admissions), measured as a play-week equivalent to a top quartile week of 2018-2019. France is the first territory in Western Europe to achieve Stage 4 and only the second in the EMEA region after Russia (which has also gone on to achieve Stage 5).
Both Spain and Turkey achieved their Stage 3 targets for the first time in the same (July 2) play-week. This is particularly notable in Turkey given that the market only re-opened July 1. Germany also co-ordinated its wide return for July 1 and immediately returned to a Stage 3 level (which it had first achieved in 2020’s re-opening), but also scored its best week of the pandemic to date (as did the Netherlands, which delivered 95% of its Stage 4 target).
It wasn’t all European success however. Three more US states (Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont) achieved their Stage 3 targets for the July 2 play-week, leaving only Montana yet to do so among the 50 states (Washington D.C. is also yet to find the target). The week was the best of the pandemic era in D.C. as well as 11 states (including New York, where capacity restrictions were lifted July 1) and five Canadian provinces. It was also the best play-week of the pandemic era in Brazil and Argentina, with the latter delivering 93% of its Stage 5 goal.
