26-01-2012

Record year for Polish cinema in 2011

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    {mosimage}WARSAW: 11.8 million of Polish viewers had chosen Polish films in the last year, establishing a new record result for local productions.

    According to the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl) overall 38.7 million of viewers have visited Polish cinemas in 2011. Out of that, 11.8 million chose Polish productions, 19.9 million chose American titles and 6.2 million saw European films. That means that over 30% of the market was shared by local titles, which is the best result since the establishment of the Polish Film Institute in 2005.

    {mosimage}Apart from the record number of viewers choosing Polish productions, three locally made films made it to the top 3 of overall box office results. The report prepared by www.boxoffice.pl states that the most popular title in Poland was a Christmas themed comedy Letters to St. Nicholas directed by Mitja Okorn and produced by TVN (www.tvn.pl), that was seen by over 2.3 million of viewers. The second most watched film was Oh, Karol 2, a comedy directed by Piotr Wereśniak and produced by MTL Maxfilm (www.mtlmaxfilm.pl), with a result of over 1.7 million viewers. The third place went to a historic costume production Battle Of Warsaw 1920, directed by Jerzy Hoffman and produced by Zodiak Jerzy Hoffman Film Production (www.zodiakfilm.pl), that was seen by over 1.5 million viewers.

    Good results were noted by the two final parts of the Harry Potter series, with 1.2 million tickets sold in Poland, as well as the Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, seen by over 1.3 million viewers. Polish cinema goers have also gravitated toward The Hangover Part II (1.1 million viewers) and the animated Cars 2 (over 1 million viewers).

    {mosimage}2011 was successful not only for the top three Polish productions, but other locally made films, that opened in a group of 300 Polish and foreign titles. Over 900 000 viewers had seen Integration Trip, a comedy directed by Przemysław Angerman and 800 000 tickets were sold for the critically acclaimed Suicide Room directed by Jan Komasa. The new film from Marek Koterski entitled Women Are Somewhat Different was chosen by 674 000 Polish cinema lovers and Weekend, a directing debut from a popular Polish actor Cezary Pazura gathered 600 000 members of the audience.