New cinema director Ralf Steinig: Challenges for Hamm and the future!

New cinema director Ralf Steinig: Challenges for Hamm and the future!

A lot is happening in the German cinema scene. On the one hand, Ralf Steinig took over responsibility as the new theater director at the Cineplex Hamm in July. He has more than 25 years of experience in the cinema world and is a true film fan. Steinig succeeds him in Hamm after leaving his previous cinema in Dresden for personal reasons. “There are major challenges for modern cinema operations,” says Steinig. This includes, above all, regularly encouraging cinema guests and maintaining the cinema as an attractive leisure activity, reports Lip wave.

Andreas Müller will remain in the company as theater manager and will take care of the structural challenges. Steinig will receive support from Carsten Dunke, the long-time operations manager, who will, however, be less present. Popular formats such as the sneak preview, the senior cinema and the VHS cinema will be continued. In autumn, viewers can look forward to films such as “Canoe of Manitu”, “Avatar” and “The Smurfs”. Another highlight will be the third cinema festival in Hamm on September 13th and 14th, which attracted around 4,000 visitors last year.

The challenge of cinema

However, the future of cinema is under scrutiny given the growing influence of streaming services. According to a study conducted by psychologists such as Roland Thomaschke and Kerstin Fröber, the cinema experience has a different quality than watching films at home. The study found that moviegoers experience stronger emotional reactions, with fascination and sadness being the most commonly cited emotions. However, if you watch at home, boredom is more pronounced. According to Fröber, these findings could help bring the benefits of going to the cinema back into focus ( Deutschlandfunk ).

Another point of discussion is that film studios generate almost half of their revenue from cinemas. This is coming into question in the face of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, which have seen huge increases in viewership during the pandemic. The challenges are clear: Cinemas must adapt after the pandemic and offer more than just film experiences and snacks as meeting places. Technical innovations have always shaped the cinema, and even now the industry is facing major changes ( NZZ ).

So while cinemas have to reinvent themselves, the question remains: How can they manage to attract audiences to the cinemas when streaming and home viewing are on the rise at the same time? Ralf Steinig seems to have a good hand, and with the new formats and a clear concept, Cineplex Hamm should be ready to master the challenges.