Inside Out 2, Gladiator 2 Malta’s most watched films in 2024
Cinema admissions fall, but Maltese films see boost in viewership and revenue
Inside Out 2, Gladiator 2 and Despicable Me 4 were Malta’s most watched films last year, according to new data published by the National Statistics Office on Monday.
Animated films dominated the charts throughout the year. Five of the top ten most watched films at the cinema were animations, with Moana 2, Paddington in Peru, and Mufasa: The Lion King all ranking highly.
Meanwhile, Deadpool and Wolverine, Wicked and the Timothée Chalamet-fronted Wonka also proved popular with cinema-goers last year. And audiences were also keen on It Ends With Us, based on the equally popular Colleen Hoover romance novel.
The list broadly mirrors one published by KRS earlier this year, except for Dune: Part 2, which did not make NSO’s top 10.
Fewer cinema visits
But statistics show fewer people are going to the cinema in the first place, with admissions dropping by 40,000 from the previous year.
In total, cinemas registered just under 556,000 admissions in 2024.
Unsurprisingly, American productions dominate the charts, with almost 93% of cinemas’ box office receipts coming from US films. In total, cinemas screened 391 films throughout the year, 150 of them being American productions.
Local productions see their numbers rise
But the figures also reveal some encouraging trends for local film producers.
A little over 8,000 people visited cinemas to watch one of the 35 Maltese films screened by local cinemas throughout the year, a sharp rise from the almost 5,000 the previous year, when only 18 local films were screened.
And box office receipts from local productions more than tripled from the previous year, rising from just under €20,500 in 2023 to over €66,000 last year.
Meanwhile, Maltese short films remained popular, with a further 3,000 people visiting a cinema for a locally-produced short film screening, generating €12,500 in box office revenue.
But Maltese films were, on average, only screened for three days throughout the year, compared to 32 days for foreign productions.