BRATISLAVA: Admissions at the Slovak box office made major gains in 2019 over the previous year. Although official statistics are not available according to preliminary information 3,056,019 tickets were sold in Slovak cinemas in the first six months of 2019, representing an average of 32 tickets per screening, compared to 27 tickets in the similar period in 2018. The number of domestic films released also increased in 2019 compared to the previous year.

A total of 42 domestic films (26 feature films, 14 documentaries and two animated films) were released in Slovakia in 2019, of which 12 were 100% Slovak productions, 12 majority coproductions and 18 minority coproductions. In the previous year 33 domestic films were released in cinemas: 17 feature films, 14 documentaries and two animated films.

In January 2019 Peter Bebjak’s The Rift / Trhlina set a new record for a Slovak film opening in Slovakia, with 83,266 admissions and 494,386 EUR gross. The previous record was held by another film by Peter Bebjak, The Line / Čiara, which was released in August 2017 with 69,242 admissions during its opening weekend (and 330,000 overall) and 375,959 EUR gross.

The Rift was produced by D.N.A. Production and coproduced by TV JOJ , while The Line was produced by Wandal Production and coproduced by Garnet International Media Group, RTVS, HomeMedia Production and Martin Kohút.

At the end of 2019 the romantic comedy The New Year´s Kiss / Šťastný nový rok by Jakub Króner, a 100% Slovak production of INOUT Studio, topped the Slovak weekend box office on its opening (5-8 December 2019). The film had 56,555 admissions and 337,680 EUR gross, and it was at the top of the charts even in the last weekend of 2019 with 192,136 admissions and 1,164,231 EUR gross.