Hungary’s cinemas closed 2009 with higher revenues from ticket sales as well as a rise in the number of cinema-goers from the previous year, data published on the National Film Office’s website on Friday showed.
Despite the economic crisis and a 7.7 percent drop in the number of screenings, the year 2009 saw revenues rise by 10.2 percent between December 1, 2008 and December 1, 2009, compared to the same period a year earlier.
The 3D version of “Ice Age 3″ took the lead on the list of films with the highest number of viewers in 2009, selling tickets worth 772 million forints (EUR 2.89m) and bringing in 650,314 viewers, according to data from Intercom, a film distributor, sent to MTI on Friday. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” came in second on Hungary’s top list with 491,000 viewers and 526.6 million forints in sales revenue. Launched only mid-December in cinemas, “Avatar in 3D” already came in a close third with 370,000 tickets sold for a total of 512 million forints, Intercom data said.
In 2008, the top-selling movie was “Mamma Mia”, which sold tickets totalling 750.4 million forints to 773,000 viewers.
Hungarian films did not make it into the top ten, except for Valami Amerika 2 (A Kind of America 2) by Gabor Hernadi, which was first screened in December 2008 and attracted 268,000 viewers with 277.3 million forints in revenues, in 2009.