Barbie topped the charts in Malta’s cinemas last year followed by The Little Mermaid and The Super Mario Bros, which accounted for 8.8 per cent, 4.7 per cent and 4.7 per cent of total admissions respectively, the National Statistics Office said on Monday.
Top Oscars winner Oppenheimer was in fourth and Napoleon, which was partly shot in Malta, placed ninth.
Cinemas in Malta and Gozo screened 385 film titles and registered a total of 594,087 admissions. In 2022, cinemas in Malta and Gozo projected 376 different film titles and had a total of 460,244 admissions.
Admissions by film genre.There were six cinema establishments with a total of 23 screens and a seating capacity of 3,881 in 2023. Of these six cinemas, two were in Gozo.
There was an average of 80 screenings per film.
Maltese productions, many of which belonged to the short films rather than the feature films category, had 4,884 admissions with a total gross box office of €20,457 in 143 screenings.
On the other hand, foreign productions, which besides the traditional feature films also included event cinema, had 589,203 admissions with a total gross box office of €4,488,290 in 30,599 screenings.
The majority of films shown in cinemas were rated as ‘12A’ or ‘15’ in terms of age classification. 28.1 per cent of the films projected in 2023 were rated ‘12A’, while 35.1 per cent were rated ‘15’. On the other hand, only seven per cent were rated ‘18’.
The running time of 61 per cent of the films fell within the 76 to 120 minutes bracket. The ‘Live/Encore’ screenings which include operas, ballets, and theatre, had the longest running time with an average of 150 minutes. On the other hand, animation films had the shortest running time with an average of 87 minutes.
Last year cinemas employed an average of 110 persons, with the majority engaged on part-time basis.
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