SLOVAK cinemas are enjoying increased visitor numbers this year. For the first three months of 2006, around 720,000 people went to the movies, a 61 percent growth year-on-year.
Anton Ondrejka, the head of the Slovak Film Distributors' Union, estimates that around 3.5 million tickets will be sold by the end of this year, compared to 2.2 million last year, the SME daily wrote.
Cinema operators ascribed the increased visitor numbers to the fact that more family movies are being shown in Slovak movie halls. Blockbusters include the Harry Potter series, Ice Age 2 and the new Pink Panther movie.
Coming movies such as The DaVinci Code and Pirates of the Caribbean are expected to maintain the positive trend.
The Slovak movie scene has experienced great changes since the fall of communism in 1989. In 1993, when independent Slovakia was established, 8.9 million movie tickets were sold in 456 movie halls across the country. Both numbers have been decreasing ever since. Currently there are 220 movie halls in Slovakia.
Back in 1993, the price of a ticket was around Sk19 (€0.5), compared to the current average of Sk90 (€2.4).
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
TheSlovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the informationpresented in its Flash News postings.
