Production of full-length films hit record in Estonia last year

In 2012, in total there were 241 films released, of which 195 were short films. Nevertheless, the total number of released films was smaller than in record year 2003, when there were released 261 films, among these 240 short films.

There were 332 films in total shown in Estonian cinemas in 2012 which is the highest number of Estonian re-independence years. There were 28 Estonian, 134 European, 154 USA’s and 16 other countries’ films. The share of the European and other countries has increased and the share of the USA’s films has decreased during last years. The number of Estonian films was the highest in 2011 when there were 40 Estonian films running in Estonian cinemas.

There were near 2.5 million cinema visits in 2012, which is the highest level of the last 20 years. Compared to 2011, there were over 100,000 cinema visits more.

The most popular films were “Ice Age 4” (171,000 visits), “Skyfall” (95,000 visits) and “Madagascar 3” (88,000 visits). The most popular Estonian film placed on the fourth position and it was “Seenelkäik“ (“Mushrooming“) of Toomas Hussar (73,700 visits). “Eestlanna Pariisis“ ("Une Estonienne à Paris") of Ilmar Raag was on the 15th position (36,600 visits) and “Vasaku jala reede“ (“Bad Hair Friday“) of Andres Kõpper and Arun Tamm was on the 21st position (33,000 visits). Estonian films gathered nearly 250,000 visits or 10% of the total number of cinema visits.

The average cinema ticket price was 4.1 euros and it stayed on the same level compared to the previous year.

Full-length film — a film of duration of at least 60 minutes (52 minutes in case of TV formats).

Estonian film production, 2008–2012