Admissions up nearly 4% in 2006
by Vitor Pinto
Portuguese cinemas registered over 16.3m filmgoers in 2006, a 3.89% increase against the preceding year. The data, published by the ICAM, comes as good news as the first trimester of 2006 was marked by a considerable drop in admissions (see news). April and December were the months with the highest admissions.
The districts of Lisbon (with 144 theatres) and Porto (84) accounted for 9.8m of total moviegoers, over half of the figures reached in the other 17 districts (Islands of Madeira and Azores included), while south-eastern district Portalegre, with only four theatres, recorded the lowest admissions (11,361).
When it comes to distribution, Lusomundo Audiovisuais heads the ranking of the most successful companies with just over 8.2m admissions, equal to a market share of 50.14%. It is followed by Columbia TriStar Warner (21.42%), Castello Lopes (14.53%), LNK audiovisuais S.A. (8.18%), Prisvideo (3.89%) and indie distributor Atalanta Filmes, whose mainly European and Asian films attracted 153,236 admissions (0.94%).
The box office was dominated by US titles, with The Da Vinci Code (756,770 admissions – nearly €3.3 grossed) in first place. US/Germany/UK/Czech Republic title Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile] comes in fifth (375,163 admissions – €1.6m), while Miami Vice and Mission Impossible III, both co-produced with Germany, were sixth and seventh, with 307,788 and 298,428 admissions respectively.
The most successful domestic title of 2006 came in tenth. Distributed by LNK Audiovisual, Filme da treta (see news) garnered 278,421 admissions and grossed just under €1.1m. The film made a splash among the 22 local films released (against the 13 released in 2005), among them six minority co-productions and five documentaries.
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