Fears are growing for the future of Paris’s historic 87-year-old UGC Normandie cinema on the French capital’s Champs-Élysées Avenue following reports it will close this June due to a combination of high rent and decline in business.
With an 862-seat capacity and 16-meter screen, the four-screen venue’s biggest theatre, the Grand Normandie, is Paris’ second biggest cinema theater after the Grand Rex.
It is one of the key theatres for local and international film premieres, with starry red carpets including Wonka and Killers of the Flower Moon over the past six months, and the venue of the Cannes Film Festival’s annual line-up press conference in April.
French media are reporting that French exhibitor UGC is planning to abandon the site if it fails to negotiate a lower rent with landlord, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
A spokesperson told Le Figaro newspaper that the cinema’s potential closure was due to a falling audience numbers and rising rents on the Champs-Elysées, which is increasingly home to global luxury brand stores, chain restaurants and hotels.
Paris audiences are heading instead to more modern multiplexes situated in less touristy areas and often located close to more affordable food courts, such as the 27-screen UGC Les Halles, which is billed as one of the most frequented cinemas in the world, welcoming 2.5M spectators in 2023.
The wow factor of the UGC Normandie’s big screen has also been superseded by IMAX screens on the periphery of the French capital.
The UGC spokesperson said no firm decision had been taken but rumors persist that the closure is a done deal, with some exhibition sector commentators suggesting the company has wanted to vacate the site for years.
The company has not responded to Deadline’s request for clarification but the reports of the theater’s waning popularity ring true.
Deadline counted five spectators in the 862-seat Grand Normandie at a 5.15pm screening of Dune 2 this week, while front of house staff said they had little hope of the cinema remaining open.
Outside, the Champs-Élysées and its sidewalk cafes were buzzing with tourists and locals.
The swanky avenue was once a mecca for cinemagoers with more than 20 theatres dotted up and down the one-mile-long avenue and its side streets.
If the UGC Normandie does close its doors for good, there will be one remaining cinema, the two screen Publicis theatre at the Arc de Triomphe end of the avenue.
Paris councillor Pierre-Yves Bournazel has launched a campaign calling on City Hall as well as the government to join the negotiations between UGC and QIA to ensure a solution is found.
“All possibilities must be put on the table to protect our cultural places with a strong symbolic dimension. This is what makes Paris a city like no other,” he said.
The UGC Normandie’s history is intertwined with that of the French cinema industry.
The venue opened its doors in 1937 with a screening of William K. Howard’s costume drama Fire Over England.
Originally consisting of a single 2,000 seat theater, it reportedly took its name from the French luxury ocean liner the Normandie for the way its sleek, modern interior resembled that of the vessel.
After World War Two and the German occupation of the capital, the theater was acquired by the state and handed over to UGC, which was created in 1946 to replace German-created entities such as Continental Film and exhibitors’ body SOGEC.
The closure of the UGC Normandie would mark the end of an era for UGC, which has had a presence on the Champs-Élysées since then.
The company was forced to close its UGC George V cinema in June 2020, after its then landlord did not renew the lease amid plans to renovate the site to house a luxury hotel and shops.
Pathé, one of France‘s oldest film companies which has its HQ off the Champs-Elysées, also quit the avenue last year when it closed the much-loved Gaumont Marignan in late 2023.
It had been the 100% owner of the 90-year-old theatre since it acquired Gaumont’s 34% stake in Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé cinema chain in 2017.
Paris councillor Bournazel warned that the avenue is losing everything that once made it special and lent it its charm and identity.
“Paris needs to reorient its tourism strategy to avoid giving in to uniformity and standardization,” he said.
If the local media reports turn out to be correct and the cinema does close in June, there will be time to squeeze in one last Cannes Film Festival line-up press conference on April 11.