26/07/2012 - Starting mid-September, the release date of new films will move from Friday to Wednesday in the Grand Duchy

The organisation of Luxembourg Cinema Owners, the Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Exploitants de Cinémas or FLEC, has announced that the release date of new films in Luxembourg cinemas will move from the traditional Friday to the Wednesday.

The change will come into effect from 12 September.

There has long been a discrepancy in terms of release dates in Luxembourg when compared to the surrounding countries, as new films are released in neighbouring France and Belgium on Wednesdays, and in Germany on Thursdays (as in nearby the Netherlands).

As of 12 September, the distribution of new releases will follow the French and Belgian example (in terms of distribution, most films released in Luxembourg are released through Belgian distributors, since the territory is too small to have separate distributor activities).

In fact, as the FLEC notes in a press release, for a lot of the bigger titles, there were already abundant “early” premieres or anticipated releases on the Wednesday and/or Thursday preceding the actual release. These were at least partially imposed by the distributors themselves – no doubt afraid they’d lose eager costumers to multiplexes just across the border.

The Luxembourg media, in turn, had major difficulties in reporting the correct dates and times for all films screened in Luxembourg cinemas and kept asking for information earlier, which cinemas were unable to give since they didn’t have any official figures from the first day the films were released, information that helps decide which films to prolong and how often a day older films should still be shown.

All these issues should be resolved when all the school holidays are over in September.

Luxembourg counts two major multiplexes, in Luxembourg City and Esch-Belval, as well as a five-screen arthouse facility in the capital. It also counts a three-screen venue at the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel in Dudelange and multiple single-screen theatres across the country.