East is desperate for movies

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet

Eastern Turkey is crying out for movie theaters, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), revealing that a number of eastern provinces officially have no movie theaters at all.

While Marmara, Aegean and Western Anatolian provinces have 46 percent of Turkey’s total number of movie theaters - generally concentrated in Istanbul, İzmir, Ankara and Bursa - there are no movie theaters at all in Gümüşhane, Bayburt, Iğdır, Tunceli, Kiliş and Şırnak in eastern Turkey.

In Turkey as a whole, in 2011, there were 520 movie theaters, 256,572 movie theater seats and 57 new movie theaters. Some 17 provinces only have one movie theater.

In the first six months of 2012, there were more than 23 million movie tickets sold throughout Turkey, bringing in 221.8 million Turkish Liras in revenue. Some 110.8 million liras of this went to domestic production companies.

In terms of Turkish movies, in the first six months of 2011 there were 44 domestically-produced movies on the market, while in the first six months of 2012 this number had dropped to 30.

According to the TÜİK figures, the majority of the Turkish population answered “going to the movies” in answer to the question: “what is your favorite cultural activity?” Visiting museums took last place.