Domestic films become more and more popular in Estonia

The attendance of domestic films and also their gross box income shows a continuous growing trend. During the last five years the attendance of Estonian films has grown from 47,000 to 223,000 cinema visits and gross box income of these films has increased from 2.6 to 14 million kroons per year.

The most popular Estonian films were “December Heat” with 50,000 attendees and “I Was Here” with 47,000 attendees. According to the data of Estonian Film Foundation, both these films are also in top 10 of Estonian most popular films in 2008.

The average proportion of domestic films in cinema has been 1.5% after the restoration of independence in Estonia, but it has made a jump during the last few years. In total 265 different films were shown in Estonian cinemas, of which 20 (8%) were made in Estonia. The share of attendees of domestic films has grown from 4% to 13% during the last five years.

In total five full-length feature films were made in Estonia last year. In addition 17 other full-length films were made, of which 16 were documentaries. The number of short films (less than 52 minutes) was 60. Ten of them were feature films, 26 documentaries, 7 animations and the rest of them were educational or promotional films. In total 82 films were made in Estonia in 2008.

The average ticket price that in 2008 was 69 kroons has remained quite stable during the last years, still showing a small growing trend in larger scale.

Gross box income of domestic films in Estonia (million kroons)