20-01-2010

Musicals draw Hungarian audiences, box office up

By Dávid Dercsényi
    Hungarian viewers made box office successes of two domestic musical films in 2009: Gábor Herendi's A Kind of America 2 and Made in Hungaria from Gergely Fonyó.

    A Kind of America 2 (Valami Amerika 2.) was released in the end of 2008, and it attracted more than 469,000 viewers. The next most popular Hungarian film was the Made in Hungaria with 224,413 viewers. Both the films fall in the category of musicals. Made in Hungaria is the story of a real Hungarian rock and roll band, stuffed with popular songs.

    In third spot was Krisztina Goda's Cameleon (153,436 viewers), followed by Gábor Forgács' Dream.Net (51,615 viewers), a rare Hungarian romantic teen film.

    Cinema attendance was 9.3 million in 2009, with Hungarian films attracting some 950,000 -- just over 10% of the total. With A Kind of America 2 claiming half of that, the number falls short of expectations. There were 17 other domestic films released in 2009.

    Compared to 2008, attendance remained stable, but box office increased 10.25%, while the number of the screenings decreased by 7.7%. Ticket prices were higher on average, due to the popularity of 3D films as well as a general increase in the regular ticket price.