In the Czech Republic, the first multiplex cinema was closed due to low attendance

Prague - Due to weak attendance, the first multiplex cinema in the Czech Republic has stopped showing films. The multiplex Cinema City in the Prague shopping center Novodvorská Plaza ceased operations at the beginning of December, which had five screening rooms with 850 seats since 2006. ČTK obtained the information today from the internet pages of the Union of Film Distributors. In recent years, multiplex cinemas have expanded in the Czech market, and by the end of this year, there should be 24 in operation, with ten multiplexes in Prague.
    The closure of the multiplex in the Novodvorská Plaza shopping complex, which ended its film screenings last Wednesday, was confirmed today by an employee of the Prague headquarters of Cinema City Czech, who stated that this Prague shopping center is not among the most visited. The company Cinema City Czech currently operates three multiplexes in Prague and one in Plzeň. This year, the company plans to open a new multiplex in Pardubice.
    According to information ČTK received from reliable sources, the attendance at the closed multiplex in the Novodvorská Plaza shopping center was only about half compared to that of the sister multiplex Galaxie in Prague-Hájích during certain months. "Customers did not find their way to the cinema in this location even after more than two years, despite the increasing number of visitors to the shopping center. This was also confirmed by an internal survey conducted directly in Novodvorská Plaza," explained the closure of the Cinema City multiplex by the French company Klepierre, which owns the Novodvorská Plaza center and is now looking for a new tenant for the vacated premises.
    When the multiplex on Novodvorská was being built, the supply of such facilities in the capital city had long exceeded the demand. As early as 2004, there was no interest in new potential locations for multiplex construction in the metropolis. Thus, the originally proposed projects were repurposed, affecting, for example, the entertainment and shopping centers in Eden, Chodov, or Náměstí Republiky.
    While last year no new multiplexes opened in the Czech Republic, this year six have been built. New multiplexes were opened in Mladá Boleslav, Plzeň, Zlín, Jihlava, and Liberec. In December, a new multiplex in Pardubice will welcome its first visitors. According to the Union of Film Distributors, there are now 23 domestic multiplexes with 188 screening rooms and 36,142 seats.
    Further multiplex constructions are being prepared, with operators focusing on regional cities. For instance, the company CineStar, which has nine multiplexes in the Czech Republic, plans to launch a multiplex in Ústí nad Labem. A new multiplex is also planned in the decades-old Družba department store on the Prague Boulevard in České Budějovice, which is awaiting reconstruction. A new multiplex is also planned in Liberec. In some regional cities, such as Pardubice and Liberec, there should thus be two multiplexes operating.
    Last year, Czechs spent a record 942 million crowns at the box offices of 19 domestic multiplexes for movie tickets, which is nearly 155 million crowns more than in 2006. The number of multiplex attendees last year rose to 8.2 million from 6.95 million the previous year. The share of multiplexes in total attendance at cinemas increased by 3.5 percentage points to 63.8 percent, and in revenues by three percentage points to 78.5 percent. Due to multiplexes, many original cinemas have ceased operations in several cities and municipalities, and the remaining cinemas often rely on subsidies from local authorities.
    The closure of the first domestic multiplex does not signal issues in this sector, according to experts. Although attendance at Czech cinemas has so far been slightly lower this year than last year, which was a record year in terms of attendance and revenue, distributors are optimistic. "Although the first half of this year was slightly sleepy, total attendance for the first ten months matched last year's results over the same period," said Jan Bradáč, director of the film distribution company Falcon. One optimistic forecast suggests that this year's attendance could theoretically exceed 13 million viewers, which would be a record in the last 14 years.
    Since 1989, the ticket prices in Czech cinemas have increased approximately fourteenfold, largely due to the emergence of multiplexes. In 1989, according to the Czech Statistical Office, the average ticket price for a cinema was about seven crowns, and it rose sharply in the following years. By the end of last year, a cinema visit cost nearly 94 crowns on average, and in the first half of this year, it was 97 crowns.
    According to the Czech Statistical Office, ticket prices are expected to continue to rise, with multiplexes being the driving force behind this increase. "Multiplexes offer superior equipment and services for a much higher price than can be found in smaller town cinemas, priority screenings of premieres, and frequent showings of blockbuster films," stated the Czech Statistical Office. Another rise in prices is also supported by the fact that domestic ticket prices for film screenings are roughly two and a half times lower compared to Western Europe.
    Last year was very favorable for domestic cinemas, with total revenues increasing by 156.7 million to 1.2 billion crowns thanks to significantly higher attendance. Multiplexes contributed the most to the revenue growth, helping the domestic film market surpass the crisis it faced since the early 1990s after 1999, which was exacerbated by the launch of television Nova in 1994.
    For example, the company CineStar, one of the largest operators of multiplexes in the Czech Republic, increased revenues in the last year to 389.8 million crowns from 336.9 million crowns in 2006. However, CineStar's profit stagnated last year at the level of 30 million crowns, the same as two years earlier.

Overview of multiplexes in the Czech Republic

Operator	Name	Location	Started operations
Palace Cinemas Czech	Olympia (OC)	Brno-Modřice	October 13, 1999
Palace Cinemas Czech	Park Hostivař (OC)	Prague 10-Hostivař	October 5, 2000
Palace Cinemas Czech	Slovanský dům	Prague 1 - Nové Město	December 7, 2000
Village Cinemas Czech Republic	Černý Most (OC ČM)	Prague 10 - Černý Most	December 14, 2000
Intersonic Entertainment	Ládví (former cinema Moscow)	Prague 8 - Ďáblice	May 1, 2001
Cinema City Czech	Galaxie (new)	Prague 4 - Háje	June 28, 2001
Palace Cinemas Czech	Velký Špalíček	Brno-city	August 31, 2001
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Futurum)	Hradec Králové	October 25, 2001
Palace Cinemas Czech	Nový Smíchov (OC)	Prague 5 - Smíchov	November 15, 2001
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Futurum)	Ostrava	November 16, 2001
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Čtyři Dvory)	České Budějovice	March 15, 2002
Village Cinemas Czech Republic	Anděl City	Prague 5 - Smíchov	July 18, 2002
Palace Cinemas Czech	Letňany (OC Tesco)	Prague 9 - Letňany	October 18, 2002
Cinema City Czech	Metropole Zličín (OC)	Prague 5 - Zličín	December 12, 2002
Cinema City Czech	Flora (OC)	Prague 3 - Vinohrady	March 20, 2003
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Olomouc City)	Olomouc	December 8, 2005
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Olympia)	Plzeň	February 9, 2006
Cinema City Czech	Novodvorská (OC NovoPlaza)	Prague 4	March 23, 2006
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Grand)	Pardubice	December 7, 2006
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Bondy Centrum)	Mladá Boleslav	January 17, 2008
Cinema City Czech	Cinema City	Plzeň	March 27, 2008
Golden Apple Cinema	Golden Apple (OC Zlaté jablko)	Zlín	May 15, 2008
CineStar	Cinestar (OC City Park)	Jihlava	October 23, 2008
CineStar	Cinestar (OC Nisa)	Liberec	October 31, 2008
Cinema City Czech	Cinema City	Pardubice	December 17, 2008