Prague - The economic troubles have been undeniably hitting the Czech Republic too. Now the crisis started to effect the film industry.
The first Czech multiplex cinema has closed its door due to low numbers of movie-goers, as reported by the Film Distributors´ Union at its web site.
The Cinema City multiplex, run by a Polish company of the same name in Prague's Novodvorská Plaza, had five cinemas and 850 seats.
There has been a rapid increase of multiplex cinemas in the country in the past totalling 24 cinemas with a dozen in Prague.
Only this year new multiplex cinemas opened in Mladá Boleslav, Plzeň, Zlín, Jihlava and Liberec, with another one opening in Pardubice in December.
Cinema City expanding
Typically, multiplex cinemas have much higher earnings than traditional picture houses in the Czech Republic. However, the total number of visitors has massively decreased this year with 8.9 million viewers, which is by 1.2 million less than last year. Thus total earnings dropped down to CZK 854 million compared to last year's CZK 966 million.
But Polish company Cinema City has noted an overall growth of interest in their services. On November 14 the firm reported an increase by 15 percent in the 3Q, earning EUR 140 million. The net profit grew by 12 percent up to EUR 14.7 million.
During the first ten months of this year this largest cinema chain opened 94 new cinemas across Central and Eastern Europe and Israel. Another 11 cinemas were opened in Poland and Romania is about to open some soon, too.
"We are pursuing an aggressive expansion. In the past ten months we have opened a hundred cinemas in five countries," said Moshe J. Greidinger, Cinema City CEO. How these cinemas are going to do in the future only time will tell.
