One in four Romanians went to the cinema last year

The launch of new cinemas equipped with the latest technology attracted over 5.2 million cinemagoers, double as many as five years ago.

On the Romanian market there were 74 operating cinemas at the end of last year with more than 182 screens and almost 50,000 seats, according to data from the National Centre of Cinematography (CNC), compared with five years ago, when there were 85 cinemas with a similar seating capacity.

During this time, the number of tickets sold rose by almost 50%, exceeding 5.2 million tickets last year, with operators collecting over 86 million RON (21 million euros).

In a crisis year when the purchasing power shrank, and the average price of tickets went up by 17.7%, the number of cinema viewers went up by 1.5 million in 2009 against 2008.

The leading players, which account for over 70% of the market, Hollywood Multiplex Operations, Cinema City, and Movieplex drew over 3.8 million viewers; they own 84 screens together.

"In the first quarter of 2010 our turnover rose 22% against the similar period of last year. As for the number of viewers, it rose 3% in the first quarter of this year against the first quarter of 2009," says Raluca Moroianu, marketing manager of the Distribution-Entertainment division of Media Pro, which owns the Hollywood Multiplex cinema network on the Romanian market.

Israeli cinema operator Cinema City International, opened the first multiplex in Romania in 2007, and last year posted an around 7.7 million-euro turnover on the Romanian market, almost double against the previous year, according to data on the company's website.