Iran’s box office revenues reached 2.31 trillion rials ($16.73 million) in the 11 months ending Feb. 19, indicating a 36% rise compared with the corresponding period of last year.
A total of more than 26.53 million people went to the movies during the period, which registers a 22% increase year-on-year, the Persian daily Donya-e-Eqtesad reported, citing the statistics released by Iranian Organization of Cinema and Audiovisual Affairs.
Last year's corresponding period (March 21, 2017-Feb. 19, 2018) saw takings of the Iranian cinema and the number of moviegoers at 1.7 trillion rials ($12.31 million) and 21.72 million people, respectively.
"With more than 1.75 million people going to the movies in the Iranian month Bahman (Jan. 21-Feb. 19, 2019), excluding the movies screening Iran’s Fajr Film Festival offerings, box office earnings hovered around 148 billion rials ($1.07 million) last month, indicating a 17% rise in revenues and a 6% increase in the number of moviegoers YOY," said Mahmoud Arbabi, the deputy head of Iranian Organization of Cinema.
The hike in box office revenues does not necessarily reflect an increase in the number of moviegoers. Movie ticket prices have increased about 1,300-fold compared with four decades ago, the 1980s.
Movie ticket prices have increased around 1,300-fold compared with four decades ago
In March 1982-83, ticket prices were only 50 rials (0.03 cents at current exchange rates). They rose to 70 rials (0.05 cents) the following year; reaching 100 rials (0.07 cents) in March 1986-87 and 30,000 rials (21 cents) in the 2000s while in the following decade (from 2011 onwards) they are priced at 87,000 rials (63 cents) on average.
Abolhassan Davoodi’s “Centipede”, Iran’s all-time blockbuster movie screened in the summer of 2018, took in 380 billion rials ($2.75 million) with an average ticket price of 87,200 rials (63.1 cents). About 4.3 million people watched this comedy.
This is while most movie critics believe that the ranking of films should be based on the number of people who watch them in cinemas and not their earnings from ticket sales.
For comparison, Redhat and Cousin (Kolah Qermezi and Pesar Khaleh in Persian), a 1995 Iranian film directed by Iraj Tahmasb, drew full crowds at cinemas then. More than 3.44 million people watched the film.
Iran’s population was near 60 million at the time and the number of movie theaters and seats were far fewer than now. Iran’s population currently stands at over 81 million.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, up to 81% of Iran’s population did not go out to the movies in March 2017-18. In its preceding year (March 2016-17), SCI put the number of moviegoers at 25 million people, suggesting that about 30% of Iran’s population went to cinemas that year. There was one movie seat for every 620 Iranians in March 2016-17, down 4% compared with 10 years earlier (March 2006-7.).
