Attendance records at local cinemas were broken yesterday - National Cinema Day, when families thronged local cinemas to take the once a year opportunity and watch a film for just Lm1.15.

All cinemas in Malta and Gozo took part in the event.

Alex Pace, representative of KRS, organisers of the event, said that more than 250 film shows (35 more than last year) were held throughout the day yesterday.

He said that certain cinemas had already exceeded last year's records by the afternoon and a good number of shows were packed.

The most popular film was Spider-Man, followed by Scooby Doo.

Kate De Cesare of Eden Century Cinemas said that this year's attendance had exceeded expectations and performances at both Fgura and Paceville did extremely well.

Attendance at the Imax Vodafone theatre, where the new film 3D Mania, which broke Imax box office records abroad was launched in Malta last Friday week, was about double that of last year. However, there was still capacity for more.

Eden Cinemas took the opportunity of National Cinema Day and made it an even bigger event giving clients special deals at the Ice Arena. It also organised events such as stilt walking, face painting, magic shows, prizes, giveaways and games, said Ms De Cesare.

Spiderman and Scooby Doo surprised the many children present with an appearance.

Extremely good results were also reported by Embassy cinema manager Andrew Mark Attard, who said that last year's records had already been exceeded by 3 p.m.

He said that there were 35 shows in six cinemas and eight films were being shown.

Clients were offered a 10-inch pizza of their choice for just 99c on presentation of their cinema ticket. Nursery rhyme cassettes, posters, stickers and sweets were also distributed.