30/07/2013 - But the few domestic films are completely overwhelmed by very popular Hollywood productions

Several new cinemas have a positive effect on Bulgaria's film distribution: both admissions and revenues increased during the first half of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012. During the first 25 weeks of this year new Bulgarian releases sold 2.17 million tickets, which brings an increase of 13.2 on the 1.91 million admissions of 2012. In terms of revenues, the total amount earned by the Bulgarian cinemas was of €9.29m in 2013, 14.2% more than the €8.12 from last year.

The last half of May was one of the most successful in Bulgarian box office history, with two weekends with almost 150,000 admissions. Responsible for this siege of the local cinemas was Fast and Furious 6, as big a success in Bulgaria as in other countries all over the world: at the beginning of July the film had almost reached 227,000 admissions in the country, being the leader of the box office for three consecutive weeks. Almost as welcome was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, released at the end of 2012, but with a large part of its 220,000 tickets sold until the end of February.

As for local productions, first half of 2013 was not too impressive. Released in 2012, Stoichkov, a documentary about the legendary football player, finished its stay in the cinemas with approximately 16,000 admissions. Until April, when Emil Hristov's The Color of the Chameleon [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Emil Christov
film profile] (photo) was domestically released, there was only one weekend when a domestic release managed to enter the weekly box office top 20. During its first month of screenings Hristov's first feature was seen by almost 10,000 Bulgarians.

Kiril Stankov's July was released on May 10 and had a little more than 3,000 admissions until the end of June. Ilia Kostov's Sunny Side was released at the end of May and sold approximately 1,500 tickets in its first three weeks of screenings.