Admissions totaled 4,181,750 in the first 29 weeks of 2012 compared to 3,930,770 in the same period of 2011. The box office was 75 m RON (17 m EUR) in the first 29 weeks of 2012 compared to 69.1 m RON (16.3 m EUR) in 2011.
Constantin Fugaşin from Agenţia Champions, who monitors the box office every year, told FNE: “The trend in the increase of the admissions and also mostly of the box office that started three or four years ago has continued in the first half of 2012, and this is due especially to the boost provided by the multiplexes – the most successful receipe worldwide in recent decades.”
This boost is not mirrored in the box offfice for domestic films.
“This growth pleases distributors and the owners of the multiplexes but not Romanian filmmakers since the figures reflect very little in terms of growth in the admissions and the box office for domestic films,” said Fugaşin adding that the reason Romanian films have difficulty getting slots in the programmes of the multiplexes is that “Romanian producers and directors didn’t yet find the key to appealling films for domestic audience.”
For the Romanian distributors the results are very dependent on the titles. Some say that the market is more or less the same in 2012 compared to 2011.
“The box office and the admissions are pretty much at the same level for us, given the fact that we launched fewer 3D movies and blockbusters in 2012 compared to 2011,” Dan Mirică, Marketing Manager with Ro Image 2000 (www.roimage.ro), told FNE. He also said the ticket prices did not rise between 2011and 2012.
Profits rose for Odeon Cineplex, Simona Dumitru, Marketing Manager for Theatrical with Odeon Cineplex (www.odeoncineplex.ro) told FNE. “This is due to Ice Age 4 – Continental Drift, the best film of 2012 and soon the third best results of all time.” The film has 270,050 admissions to date.
Oana Florea, Marketing Manager of Forum Film România (www.cineforum.ro), which distributed the 2011 box office topper Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, told FNE, “the true surprises” will come when it releases Skyfall and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Forum Film is in the second position at the box office with The Avengers, with 206,540 admissions.
Admissions for blockbusters almost doubled in 2010 compared to 2009 and 2008, and the number of the cinemas increased as well. In 2011, 168 films premiered, compared to 151 in 2010, 184 in 2009 and 176 in 2008.
