08/01/2020 - Yearly admissions have increased from 389,172 in 2018 to 785,957 in 2019

Although some may complain that Romanians are not exactly attracted to local arthouse features, 2019 has definitely proved an excellent year for domestic releases in Romania. While fewer domestic films were released in cinemas, admissions more than doubled, from 389,172 in 2018 to 785,957 in 2019. The increase in earnings is even bigger (106%), from €1.44 million in 2018 to €2.98 million last year.

The most popular domestic release of 2019 was Cristina Jacob’s coming of age comedy Oh, Ramona! [+see also:
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film profile], with more than 260,000 admissions, but the year could have been dominated by Matei Dima’s 5Gang: Another Kind of Christmas [+see also:
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5Gang was entirely produced outside of the established Romanian film industry and involved some of Romania’s most popular vloggers, some of them counting millions of followers. The film reached 247,000 admissions over its second week in cinemas and may very well become the most popular domestic release of the millennium over the next few days, since there only remains one film to beat: Garcea and the Oltenians, a comedy which reached a total of circa 290,000 admissions in 2002. It is worth noting that all the aforementioned films were furiously panned by critics.

Occupying the third place for 2019 is Alexis Cahill’s period drama Queen Mar [+see also:
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film profile] with 89,548 admissions.

Romanian features known from the festival circuit fared less well last year. Despite its obvious audience potential, Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers [+see also:
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interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile] (5^th place in the yearly top) was watched by only 30,351 cinemagoers after its world premiere in the main competition at Cannes, while Tudor Giurgiu’s love story Parking [+see also:
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interview: Tudor Giurgiu
film profile] (6^th place) finished its stay in local cinemas with a total of 14,452 admissions. Released more than a year after winning the Berlinale Golden Bear in 2018, Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not [+see also:
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interview: Adina Pintilie
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interview: Marius Olteanu
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interview: Andrei Cohn
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