Croatian cinemas had 48% fewer shows and 70% fewer visitors in 2020 than in 2019 because of the pandemic and they also saw a a 70% drop in gross revenue, the state statistics bureau (DZS) reported on Monday.

Due to the lockdown of cultural and educational institutions caused by the pandemic, the majority of cinematographers (51%) worked between seven to nine months.

There was a significant decrease in the number of shows and visitors in all counties, with the exception of Karlovac County, where the number of shows and visitors increased compared to 2019.

Croatia has six summer cinemas and they registered the opposite trend, reporting 108% more shows and 53% more visitors compared to 2019.

Summer and travelling cinemas had the smallest decrease in revenue (-11%).

“It’s obvious that a lot more viewers decided to watch films outdoors due to the circumstances and epidemiological measures,” DZS said in its report.

In 2019, the annual gross revenue from regular cinematographic content amounted to more than 160 million kuna and more than 1.3 million kuna from alternative content, whereas in 2020 it amounted to about 47.4 million kuna and some 252,000 kuna respectively.

The fall in revenue inevitably meant a fall in the number of workers (-14%).

The data is based on annual reports submitted by cinematographers.