In 2023, although the habits of moviegoers were changing, cinema attendance was growing steadily and approaching pre-pandemic indicators, according to official statistics issued by the National Film Centre of Latvia.
Domestic films gathered 167,149 admissions and 766,238 EUR gross.
Slightly more than two million film tickets (2,030,545 tickets) were bought in Latvian cinemas in 2023, which is already 75% of the number of viewers from 2019 (in contrast to 2022, when cinema attendance barely exceeded 50% of 2019 indicators).
In 2023, 399 films were screened in Latvian cinemas, of which 272 were premieres of new films. Traditionally, most of the film repertoire is made up of films produced in the USA (77% of the films shown in 2023). The top 3 films in Latvian cinemas were Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbie and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
The average price of a cinema ticket was 6.60 EUR, compared with 6.51 EUR in 2022.
It is noteworthy that Soviet Milk received two popularity garlands at the National Film Awards Lielais Kristaps in February 2024, winning the audience vote of the public media portal LSM.lv and becoming the most popular Latvian film of 2023 at the cinema Splendid Palace.
