Russian cinema admissions fall 11%

Box office stays buoyant as prices are raised

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

Russian cinema attendance is down compared with last year but box office remains healthy as exhibitors raise ticket prices, according to a report released by Russia's Movie Research company.

The report shows that cinemagoing dropped by 11% in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year, with 36.3 million admissions -- 4.7 million fewer than in the first quarter of 2008.

But box office takings were up by 11% from 5.6 billion rubles ($180 million) to 6.1 billion rubles ($196 million) for the period as cinema operators pushed up the price of an average ticket from 135 rubles ($4.30) to 168 rubles ($5.40), Movie Research found.

Statistics released in March by movie industry authority Russian Film Business Today magazine, which compared the three-month period December 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009 with the same period a year before, painted a gloomier picture.

Admissions for the three months to March 1, 2009 were just more than 31 million, 21% fewer than the 39.5 million recorded for the comparable period in 2008.

Total box office in Russia and former Soviet CIS states was $165 million, the report said, down 23% on the period a year before, when $215 million was taken at the turnstiles.