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BOX OFFICE Poland

Results 2006(1) : More films, more filmgoers

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The 2006 film year in Poland gave no reason for dissatisfaction. Cinema attendance – after a poor 2005 (23.6m admissions) – reached a total 30m, the majority of which (18m) was in the first six months of the year. Even if the 2006 result was not the best record in recent years (33.4m in 2004), its growth is still noteworthy.

The release of new films followed the same trend, with 260 titles distributed in Poland in 2006. The difference, compared to previous years, is significant because the total number of films on the big screen, which six years ago did not exceed 200 (196 in 2000), slowly rose to 220 in 2005 to reach last year’s record.

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Polish audiences’ choice of films, however, calls for a less optimistic view of these results, relatively speaking. US productions still hold the lion’s share, especially films aimed at young audiences. Carlos Saldanha’s Ice Age: The Meltdown (1.94m admissions on 107 prints) and The Chronicles of Narnia by Andrew Adamson (1.7m on 150 screens) recorded the best results in 2006.

Alonsgide these titles, stories based on the life of the Polish pope had spectacular success: Pope John Paul II by John Kent Harrison (1.92m on 140 screens) and two titles by Giacomo Batiatto: Karol: A Man Who Became Pope (1.88m on 151 screens), Karol: The Pope, the Man (1.74m on 141 screens).

Good results, but nonetheless well below the real hits in 2004, were had by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (3.5m), Shrek 2 by Andrew Adamson (3.4m) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by Peter Jackson (2.1m).

One of the most noteworthy trends is the return of the documentary to national screens. In 2006, distributors offered films dealing with serious social problems, such as Workingman's Death by Michael Glawogger, Murderball by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, Cesky sen by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda, Tarnation by Jonathan Caouette, as well as – a first in years – Polish documentary Jak to się robi? (lit. “How Can That Be?”) by the indisputable master of the genre, Marcel Łoziński.

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(Translated from French)

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