Local movie blockbusters break revenue records in Turkey

According to the latest 2015 cinema report by Antrakt, an independent film market intelligence company, a total of 60.4 million movie tickets were sold in Turkey in the last year. Ticket sales for locally produced films were 57%, while foreign films earned 43% of the total. Though the number of admission tickets was 2% higher in 2014, the report shows more than 1 billion Turkish lira ($332.3 million) in revenue from tickets in the past two years. Local films brought in 361 million Turkish lira, more than half of the total revenue of 681.4 million Turkish lira, an all-time record.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Turkish market is the popularity and success of local films. In 2015, the number of locally produced films was also the highest ever. In the period between 1990 and 2004, the rate of Turkish production films never passed 37% of the total number of sold tickets, but after that, the numbers only fell below 50% in 2005, 2007 and 2012. Moreover, the Antrakt report clarifies this striking increase in local production: Between 1990 and 2007, there were about 40 locally produced films; in 2014, that number was 107, and last year 134 local films were made. Notably, there were also 137 shot and ready films that never found a distributor last year, so more than 100 films are waiting for their showing rights now.