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|  | Cinema City. Surprising perks |
| | | | Globus. A hard blow Photo: Avigail Uzi
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Missed the opening titles? You will soon be locked out of cinemas altogether as more and more Israelis prefer home entertainment to a night at the theater
Ofer Petersburg
Israelis may be avid movie-goers, but still favor their pajamas over getting dressed to go out. There is no other way to explain the decline in box-office ticket sales.
The recent growth of the Israeli population stands in direct contrast with the sharp decline in ticket sales to the movies. Only a mere seven years ago, the annual ticket sales reached 12 million, while the past year saw only 9 million sold – a figure that ranks Israel
last in tickets sales per capita in the West. The result: Estimates claim 120 out of 320 theaters will be shut down this year.
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“The entire world is experiencing a 3% decline in watching movies in cinemas,” says Geocartography Knowledge Group Director Prof. Avi Dgani, who has conducted a market survey on the subject ahead of Cinema City’s new theater complex in Rishon Letsiyon. “However, the decline is more dramatic
in Israel, because Israelis prefer other modes of entertainment.”
Theater owners have already realized they would have to come up with new attraction to lure the average Israeli back into the chair: Hollywood-style décor, movie and meal deal, digital screening that improves the sound and picture quality and 3-D screenings.
“People no longer come to the movies just to watch a flick,” said Moshe Edri, one of Cinema City’s owners. “This is also why we have to invest millions in new, surprising perks as an added-value to the movie.”
Veteran filmmaker Yoram Globus blames piracy. “One of the main problems,” says Globus “is the illegal downloading of movies on the internet, which is mishandled in Israel. Piracy is a hard blow to the industry, making people wonder why they should go out if they can watch the same movies at home.”
The good news is that Israeli cinema viewing is on the rise: 450,000 people saw “Turn Left At the End of the World,” 300,000 saw “Beaufort,” 250,000 saw “The Band’s Visit” and “Aviva My Love,” and 200,000 saw “The Secrets” and “Noodle.”
All in all, Israeli films sold no less than 1.5 million tickets. Some success was also registered with foreign films: According to the Cinema Owners Association, the most popular movie in Israel in 2007 was “Ratatouille” by the Disney-Pixar studios, which was seen by more than 400,000 people.
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