Box office revenues stagnate in Romania. Top-grossing movies in 2019

The box office revenues of all the movies launched in Romanian cinemas in 2019 totaled RON 261 million (EUR 55 million), slightly below the level recorded by the movies launched in 2018 – RON 267 million, Romania-Insider.com has calculated based on data from local movie platform Cinemagia.ro.

Local cinemas saw a slight drop in revenues in 2018 and 2019, after accelerated growth from 2010 until 2017, when the box office revenues topped RON 275 million (EUR 58 million), the data shows.

The local box office was dominated in 2019 by Hollywood blockbusters. Avengers: Endgame, the closing of the Avengers series, recorded revenues of RON 14.4 million (EUR 3.03 mln). However, it is only third in the all-time local box office ranking after Avatar (2009) and Aquaman (2018).

Disney’s Frozen II was second last year, with revenues of RON 12.5 mln (EUR 2.63 mln), and it’s still running. Joker was third, with RON 10.9 mln, followed by the Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw – RON 9.8 mln, Jumanji: The Next Level – RON 8.9 mln, and The Lion King – RON 8.2 mln. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker sold tickets worth RON 7.24 mln (EUR 1.5 mln) in three weeks and it’s still running in local cinemas.

Captain Marvel (RON 7.2 mln), Maleficient: Mistress of Evil (RON 6.8 mln), and Spider-Man: Far from Home (RON 5.6 mln) completed the top 10.

However, the top 10 could change as the Romanian movie 5Gang: A Different Kind of Christmas, launched in the last week of 2019, is still drawing many spectators to local cinemas. The movie, produced by some of the most popular local vloggers, is already the most successful Romanian premiere in the last ten years, with revenues of RON 4.68 mln (almost EUR 1 mln) in just two weeks.

So far, the record has been held by Oh, Ramona!, a teenage movie in English, also launched in 2019, which raised RON 5.1 mln (EUR 1.07 mln) in local cinemas.

In fact, 2019 was an excellent year for the local film industry. “While fewer domestic films were released in cinemas, admissions more than doubled, from 389,172 in 2018 to 785,957 in 2019. The increase in earnings is even bigger (106%), from EUR 1.44 million in 2018 to EUR 2.98 million last year,” according to an analysis by Cineuropa.org.

The historic drama Queen Marie of Romania was the third most popular local production in 2019, with over 150,000 spectators and RON 2.8 mln revenues.

Another Romanian comedy, Do it, or shut up! cashed in RON 1.8 mln in revenues from almost 90,000 spectators.

Meanwhile, La Gomera (The Whistlers), by famous Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, grossed only RON 465,000 from 30,000 spectators.

Yearly box office data as calculated by Romania-Insider.com reflects the total box office revenues of the movies that premiered in local cinemas in the respective year, which may be slightly different compared to the actual ticket sales in that year, as movies launched at the end of the year run in the next year as well. Thus, the box office revenues for the movies launched in 2019 will probably be a little higher than the current figure of RON 261 mln as some movies launched last year are still in theatres.

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