A total of 43 movie titles were released in Iranian theaters during the seven-month period, as 16.78 million people went to the movies, according to data published in www.panel.cinemashahr.ir--the official Iranian cinema box office website providing detailed information on box office earnings to the public. The outlet became operational on Feb. 25, 2019.
The number of moviegoers witnessed a year-on-year decrease of 11.07% during the period under review.
The average cinema ticket price stood at 114,691 rials ($1.02), up by 26,894 rials ($0.24) or 30.63% year-on-year, according to Financial Tribune.
The solid rise in box office earnings during the period under review stems from the increase in ticket prices and not in the number of moviegoers.
More than half of the box office earnings came from only five movie titles, namely "6.5 Per Meter" directed by Saeed Roustayi with 271.82 billion rials ($2.42 million), "Texas 2" directed by Masoud Atyabi with 250.74 billion rials ($2.23 million), "Rahman 1400" directed by Manouchehr Hadi with 218.91 billion rials ($1.95 million), “When the Moon Became Full” directed by Narges Abyar with 189.6 billion rials ($1.69 million), and “The Warden” directed by Nima Javidi with 148.92 billion rials ($1.32 million). The five titles earned a total of 1.08 trillion rials ($9.64 million) combined.
Box office earnings during the first Iranian month (March 21-April 20) stood at 573.57 billion rials ($5.12 million), registering an increase of 34.7% compared with last year’s similar month.
The earnings amounted to 266.63 billion rials ($2.38 million) during the second Iranian month (April 21-May 21), indicating a decrease of 1.88% year-on-year and a fall of 53.51% month-on-month.
Sales during the third Iranian month (May 22-June 21) stood at 293.79 billion rials ($2.64 million), up by 132.81% YOY and by 10.19% MOM.
As for the fourth Iranian month (June 22-July 22), the earnings rose by 36.23% YOY and declined by 0.25% MOM to reach 294.91 billion rials ($2.63 million).
However, box office earnings witnessed a noticeable decline in the fifth Iranian month (July 23-Aug. 22) both from YOY and MOM perspectives, as Iranian cinemas earned 239.07 billion rials ($2.13 million) during the month to register a 15.11% and 18.94% decline YOY and MOM respectively.
The downward trend also continued during the sixth Iranian month (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) as box office earnings amounted to 114.54 billion rials ($1.03 million) during the month, indicating a 10.36% and 52.1% decline YOY and MOM respectively.
Sales during the seventh Iranian month Mehr (June 22-Oct. 22) stood at 138.98 billion rials ($1.24 million), down by 33.06% YOY and up by 20.01% MOM.
Iranian box offices earned close to 2.4 trillion rials (more than $21.42 million) during the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019), to register an increase of 25% compared with the earnings of the year before.
According to a report by the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, 79 movies were released in theaters last year.
Iranian movie theaters sold more than 810 billion rials ($7.23 million) in spring, 610 billion rials ($5.44 million) in summer, 530 billion rials ($4.73 million) in fall and 360 billion rials ($3.21 million) in winter.
The movie "Centipede" directed by Abolhassan Davoudi was the highest grossing movie of the year earning over 370 billion rials ($3.3 million) and attracting 4.21 million viewers. In fact, the title is the all-time highest-grossing film of the Iranian cinema.
According to Panel.cinemashahr.ir, Iranian cinemas attracted more than 28 million people last year, which shows more than a 22% increase compared with the year before.
Each Iranian goes to the movies 0.3 times per year on average, according to a report by the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad.