CBRE director: Cluj-Napoca is the city with the most cinema tickets sold in Romania

Cluj-Napoca is the Romanian city with the highest average number of cinema admissions per inhabitant - 2.8 admissions/inhabitant, according to an analysis of Laura Bencze, Account Director Retail at CBRE. By comparison, the nationwide average is 0.68.

The analysis is based on information from the number of tickets sold in Romania in 2018 according to the Romanian Film Center (CNC) and the population of those cities according to the national statistics institute INS.

Cluj-Napoca is followed in the top by Constanta, Timisoara and Suceava, with the capital Bucharest ranking fifth.

Explaining this ranking, the CBRE director said that Cluj is ranked first because it has four cinemas (two multiplex + two high-street cinemas), while Iasi, which didn’t make it to top five besides being the second most populated city in Romania, has only two (one multiplex + one high-street). Moreover, Laura Bencze said that “the people in Cluj have a long tradition of going to the cinema, something that was true for most big cities in Romania […] but which got lost along the way.”

“Habits disappeared as high-street cinemas lacked infrastructure investments, they lacked technology, most were state-owned and were left for decay. Multiplex cinemas depend on shopping center openings. Thus, if in Iasi there will be more cinemas (which real-estate developers promise to do, via big projects like Mall of Moldova by Prime Kapital), there is a strong chance Iasi will climb the ranks,” the CBRE director explained.

As for Suceava, which is in top five despite having a smaller population of 124,000 inhabitants and only one cinema (multiplex), Laura Bencze said: “besides arguing that the cinema caters not just the city population, but the entire county and all neighboring cities, the answers is opening date & operations.”

“The cinema in Suceava is located in a third-generation type of mall, developed & managed by Iulius Group, opened rather a long time ago, in 2008. Also, the mall is well-positioned in the city in terms of branding and loyalty. The tradition of going to the cinema did not have a chance to get lost, but it consolidated,” she argued.

(Photo source: Pixabay.com)