With a new theater and increased ticket sales, the Le Cabieu associative cinema in Ouistreham appears to be in good shape. “We are almost in cessation of payments,” announces its president. The cause is electricity prices, which have jumped in recent years and are plunging the accounts into the red. The small cinema team is working to save this historic establishment, opened in 1983, and is hoping for help from the town hall.
It’s hard to think that this is a place that is experiencing crisis. On a Monday afternoon in April, the parking lot of the Le Cabieu cinema, in Ouistreham (Calvados), is occupied by two dozen cars. Inside, entry tickets are sold. Several grandparents accompany their grandchildren.
Two sessions are about to begin. An educational film for children in the large room, which seats 352, and an author’s feature film in the second, which has 101 seats. This associative cinema, born in 1983 and labeled “Art et essay”, broadcasts six films every day.
The building, which completed a renovation last February, is like new. And business is going well, if appearances are to be believed: nearly 17,000 tickets have been sold since the February reopening, informs Philippe Moisson, the president of the association. This is more than in previous years at the same period.
Nothing suggests financial difficulties. “We are almost in cessation of payments“, however announces Philippe Moisson. “We’re trying to get our heads above water, but we’re in a deficit“.
We are almost in cessation of payments.
Philippe Moisson, president of Le Cabieu cinema
This is the paradox which affects this cinema: the town hall of Ouistreham, owner of the building, has financed for 1.6 million euros, between 2022 and 2024, the construction of a second room and the renovation of the hall. The increase in ticket sales seems to make it a winning investment.
But the structure’s finances are weighed down by the cost of electricity. In 2019, the last full year of activity (before the work and the Covid pandemic), the cinema had paid nearly 6,000 euros for heating over a year. This April, the association again received an electricity bill of 6,000 euros, but for only one month of winter consumption.
Over the past five years, the price of electricity has seen a cumulative inflation of 44%. But, argues Philippe Moisson, it is also the new electric heating system, installed by the municipality during the renovation, which is helping to undermine the balance of the accounts. “We weren’t the prime contractors, we didn’t choose this equipment“, says the president. The total cost of his electricity bill in 2024 is already approaching 15,000 euros, he indicates. The accounts are in the red. “And if I receive another bill for this amount, I’ll close the door“, alerts Philippe Moisson.
If I receive another invoice (…), I will close the door.
Philippe Moisson, president of Le Cabieu cinema
“We don’t sleep well at night“, concedes Olivier Ferder, the cinema technician, one of the structure’s two full-time employees. The establishment has three, including a part-time cleaning employee. Sophie Fras, cinema director, the other employee, abounds: “We say to ourselves, damn, we’re not going to close for that, not for heating!“
Former executive of an industrial group, now retired, Philippe Moisson explains having had to organize several social plans in his career. “It was terrible. I don’t want to have to do this again here“, he testifies. “It’s a shame because there is great potential in this cinema“, adds the president. Before the work, Le Cabieu was the busiest single-screen cinema in Normandy. The increased attendance in 2024 gave hope for the best until the receipt of recent invoices.
The cinema has requested an exceptional subsidy from the mayor of Ouistreham. At a minimum, we would need to Cabieu “15,000 to 20,000 euros” to overcome this bad situation, on an overall budget which is around 190,000 euros annually, mentions the president. He did not receive a positive response from the town hall.
In December, the mayor (Horizons), Romain Bail, set the tone in a letter addressed to Philippe Moisson: “The current economic context pushes each of us to demonstrate sobriety (…) In the interests of economy and coherence, the City must be even more attentive to its budget (…) The action taken [par le cinéma] is for commercial purposes, which does not allow the City to support you any more than before“, he wrote. The councilor also underlined that a municipal subsidy of 35,000 euros has already been granted in 2023.
The town of Ouistreham also offered a place for a session at Cabieu to each of its 10,000 residents when it reopened in February. This represents another indirect subsidy of several tens of thousands of euros, argues the mayor, contacted by France 3 on April 24. “You must take the situation with calm and serenity.“, he ponders.
At the forefront of the solutions could be a slight increase in the price of entry, suggests Romain Bail. “From fifty cents, to increase the price of a seat from 5.50 to 6 euros“.
Le Cabieu is an institution in Ouistreham. The City will be there to support him if there is a difficulty.
Romain Bail, mayor of Ouistreham
The councilor also calls on the association to “a little budgetary seriousness“, pointing out the maintenance of full remuneration for the three employees of the structure during the closures linked to confinements due to Covid, in 2020 and 2021. “The municipality is not intended to pay 100% of salaries” du Cabieu, which is a commercial structure, he says.
The improvements to the cinema hall, financed by the association from its own funds before reopening, also led to a significant “cash burn“, according to the mayor. Philippe Moisson confirms: his association has in fact drawn from its savings to build its sales counter and arrange the entrance to the building. The large electricity bills for 2024 were not expected at the time.
Romain Bail still wants to be reassuring: “Le Cabieu is an institution in Ouistreham. The City will be there to support him if there is a difficulty“, he promises. But the councilor remains uncompromising on one point: electricity and water must in principle be paid for by the association.
However, it is the charge which puts the establishment in danger, we inform Cabieu. And this difficulty is not specific to the Ouistreham cinema. In Douvres-la-Délivrande, 9 kilometers to the west, the Cinénacre resembles its neighbor in Ouistreham in several respects: it is a historic arthouse establishment in the commune, under associative status and which employs an employee. As at Cabieu, the Cinénacre recently reopened after expansion work. It also has two rooms, in premises lent by its community of municipalities.
As in Ouistreham, the structure offers cheaper prices than in private cinemas, with a ticket under 6 euros. “We hope to be able to keep these prices low, but perhaps at some point we will have to increase them“, comments the president of Cinénacre, Raymond Pernelle. Because, like at Cabieu, the Dover cinema will suffer in 2024 from the increase in electricity prices, despite an increase in ticket sales.
Luckily, in Dover, it is the intermunicipality which takes care of the electricity. Without this, “that would be ric-rac“to keep the budget, says Raymond Pernelle.”The community of municipalities pays for the fluids, which is not negligible“, he comments.
In Ouistreham, the Le Cabieu cinema association held its general meeting on the evening of April 24. Financing solutions were discussed there. President, Philippe Moisson, intended to propose the opening of a prize pool. Shortly before the start of the meeting, the town hall announced that it would soon hold a meeting with those responsible for the cinema. “We will look at how to manage the electricity bill“, confided to France 3 in the morning, the mayor, Romain Bail.
