About Cinema

Cinema

Cinema — Germany's first film magazine — is the Hamburg monthly for the cinema and streaming fans, published by Hubert Burda Media. Founded in 1975 by Dirk Manthey, the magazine celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025: "die bekannteste Filmzeitschrift Deutschlands" (Germany's best-known film magazine). "DER Guide für Kino und Streaming" — the guide for cinema and streaming: the first port of call for film and series fans, cinema purists, binge-watchers, and Blu-ray collectors. Monthly (IVW 2/2026: 18,703 sold copies), the magazine looks — proverbially — behind the scenes: the stories, the backgrounds, the service.

Overview

The magazine serves the entertainment fans: the cinema-goers, the streaming subscribers, the series binge-watchers, the Blu-ray collectors, the nerds. The editorial program covers the moving image's full spectrum: the newest films and series — presented competently, independently, with the focus on service-oriented use — the backgrounds, the stories, the interviews. The readers — "echte Entertainment Fans" (true entertainment fans) — dive deep: the 2-hour average reading time, the high reader-magazine bond, the subscription share.

The crossmedia concept — the monthly print magazine, the cinema.de portal (1.35 million page impressions, IVW III-2024), the social media (3,600 Instagram, 74,400 Facebook followers, Oct 2024), the podcasts (the "Making of…" and the "Cinema Classics" anniversary special), the joint magazine with TV Spielfilm (every six months since April 2018) — gives the film fans the guide: the cinema and the streaming, the disc and the download. The Jupiter award — the audience prize — deserves its telling. Since 1979 — the magazine's fourth year — Cinema presents the Jupiter: the film award voted by the readers — the audience's prize, not the jury's. The categories — the best films, the best actors (national and international) — honor the cinema: the fans' favorites. The ceremony — the industry's gathering — celebrates: the stars, the filmmakers. The award's longevity — the 45+ years — documents the brand: the readers' engagement, the magazine's authority. The Hungarian edition — the 1991–2009 Cinema magazin (Budapest, "Európa legnagyobb filmmagazinja" — Europe's largest film magazine) — extended the brand: the licensed internationalization. The award's role — the marketing, the prestige — serves the industry: the winners' promotion, the fans' participation.

History

Cinema — founded 1975 by Dirk Manthey in Hamburg — began unusually: not as the magazine but as the paperback, sold where the target audience was found — at the cinema box offices. In 1976 it became the magazine (initially black-and-white, irregular); since 1979 it appears monthly — developing into Europe's largest film magazine. The Burda News Group — the publishing context — deserves its telling. The Hubert Burda Media — the Offenburg family group — publishes the news division: the Focus (the news magazine), the TV Spielfilm (the TV guide), the Cinema (the film magazine). The 2010 merger — the Verlagsgruppe Milchstraße and the Focus Magazin Verlag — created the group: the Hamburg newsroom, the Munich and Offenburg centers. The BCN — the Burda Community Network (the marketer) — sells the brands: the object profiles, the crossmedia. The Hamburg seat — the film magazine's home since 1975 — keeps the tradition: the Manthey founding, the Milchstraße era, the Burda present. The group's strategy — the print's premium, the digital's growth — carries the titles: the magazines' transformation — the Cinema's streaming guide, the Focus's digital, the TV Spielfilm's app.

The television — the Cinema TV on ProSieben (April 1997–October 2000; moderated by Susann Atwell, Nadine Krüger, Andrea Kempter), the CinemaxX TV (November 2000–December 2003), the Cinema TV on Tele 5 (September 2005–January 2007; Miriam Pielhau) — extended the brand: the film magazine on screen. The editorial leadership — since 2023 Lisa Schwarz (Redaktionsleitung) and Oliver Noelle (Chefredakteur) — carries the transformation: the print monthly to the cinema-and-streaming guide.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the entertainment year's rhythm. The cinema coverage — the new releases, the previews, the reviews — treats the big screen: the blockbusters, the arthouse, the German film. The streaming coverage — the series, the platforms — serves the binge-watchers: the Netflix, the Disney+, the Prime Video, the newcomers. The background coverage — the "hinter die Kulissen" (behind the scenes) — gives the stories: the makings-of, the interviews, the set reports. The service coverage — the buying guides, the Blu-ray, the home cinema — advises the collectors: the discs, the editions.

The 50th anniversary — the 2025 jubilee — deserves its telling. "Das erste Filmmagazin Deutschlands feiert 50-jähriges Jubiläum mit eigenem Making-of" — Germany's first film magazine celebrating 50 years with its own making-of: the podcast special "Cinema Classics — Der Making-of-Podcast — 50 Jahre Cinema" (host Ralf Blau, the Cinema veteran, with editorial head Lisa Schwarz) sharing the curiosities, the surprises, the history — from the 1975 paperback at the cinema box offices to the streaming guide. The anniversary's message — the half-century's constant: the optimization and adaptation to the readers' needs — explains the survival: the monothematic magazine's "reife Leistung" (mature achievement). The 300,000 readers (Burda's anniversary figure) — the reach — and the risen single-copy sales (plus over a quarter) — the print's pulse — celebrate: the film magazine's resilience in the magazine crisis. The Jupiter award — the audience prize since 1979 — celebrates the cinema: the year's best, the fans' vote. The joint magazine — the TV Spielfilm cooperation — deserves its telling. Since 20 April 2018 — the Cinema and TV Spielfilm joint magazine, every six months — combines the film and TV guides: the cinema's backgrounds, the television's programs. The Burda synergy — the news group's two entertainment titles — cross-promotes: the Cinema's readers, the TV Spielfilm's millions. The semiannual rhythm — the special issues — focuses the seasons: the summer blockbusters, the awards season. The cooperation's logic — the print's bundling — answers the market: the entertainment guide's scale. The brand's extensions — the TV, the podcast, the joint magazine, the award — multiply the Cinema: the 1975 paperback's evolution — the film magazine's multimedia present.

Organization and Ownership

Cinema is published by Hubert Burda Media (Burda News Group), Hamburg. The editors-in-chief (since 2023) — Lisa Schwarz (Redaktionsleitung) and Oliver Noelle (Chefredakteur) — lead the newsroom. The founder — Dirk Manthey (1975) — created the film magazine. The business model follows the consumer-press pattern: the copy sales and subscriptions (the 2025 object profile notes the risen single-copy sales: plus over a quarter year-on-year), the advertising (the film industry, the streaming services, the entertainment), the digital (the portal, the social), and the events (the Jupiter).

The German film-magazine market — the competitive context — deserves its telling. The cinema's press — the Cinema, the TV Spielfilm's film pages, the online portals — competes for the entertainment fans: the reviews, the news, the backgrounds. The streaming's rise — the platforms' content flood — changed the guide's role: the curation, the orientation. The print's decline — the 91% sold-circulation drop since 1998 — hit the monothematic magazines: the newsstand's erosion, the digital's substitution. The stabilization — the single-copy sales' 2025 rise — signals the core: the fans' loyalty, the 2-hour reading time, the subscription share. The Burda News Group — the news division (Focus, TV Spielfilm, Cinema) — gives the scale: the Hamburg newsroom, the Offenburg group. The magazine's adaptation — "kein reines Filmmagazin mehr, sondern DER Guide für Kino und Streaming" — answers the market: the cinema and the streaming, the fans' guide. Detailed revenue figures are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is cinema.de: the film and series news, the reviews, the backgrounds — 1.35 million page impressions (IVW III-2024). The social media — the Instagram (3,600) and Facebook (74,400 followers, Oct 2024) — extend the community: the trailers, the news. The podcasts — the "Making of…" and the anniversary special — tell the audio stories: the productions, the history. The joint digital — the TV Spielfilm cooperation — cross-promotes: the film and TV.

The digital strategy follows the entertainment logic: the monthly print for the deep film coverage — the backgrounds, the stories, the service — the portal, the social, and the podcasts for the daily entertainment news. As Germany's first and best-known film magazine — the 1975-founded monthly, published by Hubert Burda Media — Cinema remains the entertainment fans' guide: the cinema and the streaming — monthly in print, daily on cinema.de.