Moviegoers grew more than
40 percent in seven years

$36 million in yearly box office sales

The number of moviegoers grew by 43 percent since 2010, reaching around four million entry tickets last year, according to data compiled at various theaters.

Foot traffic rose 11 percent last year compared to 2016. Gross Box Office (GBO) receipts reached $36 million last year. The launch of new cinemas at The Spot Shoueifet, ABC Verdun, Cascada Mall Zahle, and The Spot Nabatieh, contributed to this growth, said Isaac Fahed, Sales and Distribution Manager at Grand Cinemas.

The country now has 139 movie screens with seating for 21,040 moviegoers, and half of the top ten movies by the number of visitors were produced locally.

Although the growth is encouraging, attendance rates per cinema dropped an average of eight percent last year, Fahed said. He attributed this decline to an increase in the number of screens and seats, which competed with existing movie houses.

“The quality of films was not the same quality as in previous years,” Fahed said. “Piracy is also growing, where the films are sold as DVDs before the films are shown in cinemas.” General Security’s ban of four promising films also caused huge losses in potential revenues he said.

The Prime-Empire cinemas chain gained the largest market share (38 percent), with 1.5 million visitors. It was followed by Grand Cinemas (1.3 million visitors) a market share of 30 percent.

VOX Cinemas is third (585,000 visitors), with an 18 percent market share, followed by Cinemall (396,000 visitors) which has a nine percent market share, and Stargate (126,000) with three percent market share, and Planète (98,000 visitors) with two percent market share.