Romania sees a 140% increase in earnings for domestic releases
- Paul Negoescu’s Two Lottery Tickets was Romania’s biggest domestic earner in 2016
![Romania sees a 140% increase in earnings for domestic releases](imgCache/2017/04/11/1491897869618_0570x0400_0x0x0x0_1679319883350.jpg)
Romanian films more than doubled in popularity in 2016 (taking 428,000 admissions) when compared to 2015 (circa 204,000), according to data made public by the local National Film Center. The increase is even more obvious in terms of earnings: the total amount earned by Romanian films in 2016, €1.45 million, is 140% higher than the amount earned the previous year.
Paul Negoescu’s buddy comedy Two Lottery Tickets [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paul Negoescu
film profile] proved to be the year’s best domestic earner, with a total of approximately €534,000. Made on a budget of €30,000, the Actoriedefilm.ro production may be the most lucrative Romanian release since the 1989 Revolution.
Two Lottery Tickets was closely followed by Cristina Iacob’s #Selfie 69 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which earned approximately €510,000. Together, the two films covered as much as 72% of the total amount earned by domestic releases in 2016. Nevertheless, the two movies didn’t earn enough to rank among Romania’s 30 best-performing annual releases, a situation that stresses local audiences’ endemic lack of interest in domestic cinema. The market share of domestic cinema in 2016 was 3.39%, up from 1.90% in 2015.
The statistics are encouraging when it comes to the total number of screenings for domestic releases in Romania: while in 2012-2014, domestic releases averaged a yearly number of 16,500 showings, in 2015 this figure decreased to 14,000 and in 2016 it surged to almost 21,000.
In the 2016 chart of top earners, Two Lottery Tickets and #Selfie 69 were followed by Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile] (€145,000), Bogdan Mirică’s Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bogdan Mirica
film profile] (€71,000), Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristi Puiu
film profile] (€68,000) and Adrian Sitaru’s Illegitimate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
film profile] (€20,000).
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