Hungarian cinemas reopen – here is what it will be like

Thanks to the fact that the crisis officially ceased in Hungary, almost all shops, many catering services, such as restaurants and hotels, and even baths are slowly starting to reopen again after about three months of hiatus. We have previously not heard about cinemas, but many will be or are already open to the public. In this article, you can find some information about how going to the cinemas will be different in Hungary than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Szeretlek Magyarország, starting from July 2, Cinema City will reopen their cinemas both in Budapest and around the country. They will reopen with a significant selection of Hungarian films, but they will have shorter opening hours in some cinemas. Hungarian films will have a key role in the program of the cinema franchise in July. The franchise will screen, among others, István Szabó’s Final Report (Zárójelentés), Not with You (Seveled) starring Juli Básti, Réka Tenki, and Béla Mészáros, and the nature documentary Wild Forests, Wild Summits – In the Footsteps of the Phantom (Vad erdők, vad bércek – A fantom nyomában). Unfortunately, these will probably be screened only in Hungarian.

In addition to Hungarian and European movies, the selection from March will also be back on schedule, including movies like Bad Boys for Life, Dolittle, Bloodshot, Dark Waters, and The Gentlemen, directed by Guy Ritchie. Novelties are AVA, starring Jessica Chastain, and the French comedy How to Be a Good Wife, starring Juliette Binoche. Cinema City also plans to host a Star Wars movie marathon.

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After reopening, the second half of the year will be marked by Hollywood blockbuster movies, such as Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi, TENET, the Disney studio’s live-action Mulan movie, Wonder Woman 1984 starring Gal Gadot, Black Widow – which was shot in Hungary, the 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, or Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. The detailed program of Cinema City cinemas is available from June 26^th on the Cinema City website.

Cinema City is part of the world’s second-largest multiplex group. The Cineworld Group operates a total of 239 cinemas in Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

The cinema network continues to prioritise the health and safety of its employees and viewers, therefore:

• the ticketing system will automatically skip a space between each ticket purchase or seat reservation,
• all employees will wear masks,
• the cinema continues to regularly clean and disinfect public spaces, such as lobbies, washrooms, and halls, and they will install hand sanitisers in their cinemas,
• concerning Cinema City Arena VIP, instead of self-service, staff members will serve you what you would like to eat.

Aside from these measures, Cinema City asks anyone who experiences symptoms of any illness to stay at home.

But there are also other cinemas in Hungary. According to Origo, Pólus Cinema will also reopen to the public. In addition to recent blockbusters, the highlights of the first weeks will include some special things, such as concert films and film history classics.

The Pólus Cinema in District 15 in Budapest is awaiting cinema fans with a wide range of programs in the weeks following its reopening on June 26. During the opening week of the cinema, viewers can choose from a total of 24 films, including both last year’s and this year’s popular premiere films such as Bloodshot, The Invisible Man, Joker, Knives Out, and The Gentlemen.

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Music fans will find a selection of concert films from the Pólus Rock Club, with rock history works only available once every evening. The selection includes Queen’s legendary concert at the Budapest Népstadion in 1986, Jimi Hendrix’s 1969 closing concert at Woodstock, the 2019 concert movie of Depeche Mode’s Spirits in the Forest, and The Beatles’ digitally remastered 1964 classic, Hard Day’s Night. In addition to the concert films, Bohemian Rhapsody, a biographical drama about Freddie Mercury – which was the most-watched movie in Hungary in 2018 – will also return to the cinema for a short time at Pólus.

In the second week of the reopening, from July 2^nd, the special edition of the Pólus Classic Film Club will offer a different film history classic to movie fans every day. These will include masterpieces such as The Godfather (1972), Jaws (1975), Apocalypse Now (1979), Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Back to the Future (1985), Jurassic Park (1993), or the Gladiator (2000) which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

There are about 120 cinemas around Budapest today, many of them multiplexes. If you would like to see movies in English or foreign languages, you have a few options. Although dubbing has a huge culture in Hungary, thanks to recent trends, many blockbusters and recent movies are usually screened in their original languages in multiplex cinemas, such as Cinema City. Many smaller cinemas also follow this trend, and some art-house cinemas can even screen movies in other foreign languages.

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If you would like to know more, we recommend searching for the movie you are interested in or visiting the website of your favourite cinema prior to going. Be prepared that there might be a need to buy your tickets online, due to COVID-19 safety measures. Although Pesti EST (Budapest Evening) is in Hungarian both online and in their print version, it might also be a good idea to check because there is an option to look for English screenings.

Unfortunately, many webpages of Hungarian cinemas are only in Hungarian, so if you feel lost, these tags can help you know what movie is in what language:

• dub / szink. – this means the movie is dubbed (Hungarian),
• f / fel. – it means the movie has (Hungarian) subtitles,
• orig(inal) – it means that the movie is screened in its original language,
• ensub – this means that the movie has English subtitles,
• angol – this means that the movie is in English.

Thanks to Angloinfo, if you are interested, you can check out their page for even more information about age rating categories and useful vocabulary for Hungarian cinema-going.

Source: Szeretlekmagyarország.hu, Origo.hu, Angloinfo.com