Attendance of Cinemas Doubled

Baku / 19.09.16 / Turan: The State Statistics Committee published the report of the enterprises of culture and art, according to which in 2015 cinema attendance more than doubled and amounted to 559.4 thousand people.

According to the SSC, Azerbaijan has 10 cinemas, which have 28 rooms. In 2015 three cinemas were put into operation.

Movie theaters are concentrated in Baku, where there are 8 public and private cinemas with 26 rooms.

Attendance of cinemas in Baku districts is as follows: Binagadi district – 287,700 spectators, Nasimi district – 245,400, Sabail district – 8,500, and Nizami district - 1,600.

It is noteworthy that the State Statistics Committee data on the number of cinemas in the form of property do not match the real picture on the market. For example, Park Cinema reports (http://parkcinema.az/kinoteatrlar) it owns five cinemas (Park Boulevard, Metro Park, Flame Towers, Zagulba and Amburan). Cinema Plus (http://cinemaplus.az/) has three (28 Mall, Amburan Mall and Khamsa Park-Ganja).

Note that the official capacity of the cinemas is 4,633 seats, an increase of 25.5% since 2014. The three state-run movie theaters have 1,807 seats. In 2015, the state theaters were visited by 165,000 viewers, which were 10,300 more than in the previous year. The private cinema attendance increased by 313,300 people. This is probably due to the legalization of their income. -----08B