Pan-Europeanexhibitor Kinepolis Group's ticket sales fell 8% in2005 according to latest figures released by the company. Kinepolisticket sales finished at 22.6 million compared to 24.5 million in 2004.

Astrong end of year run came as a great boost but was not enough to counter the12% dip recorded at the end of the third quarter.

Thecompany, which operates sites in Belgium, France, Spain, Poland and Switzerland, attributed the cyclicaldip to "a poor programme of films on offer internationally through to October,the concentration of blockbusters during the last two months of the year, andthe absence of strong local productions."

Reflectingindividual territory results the group's single site in Poland saw the biggestyear-on-year drop of 31.9%. Switzerland's single site also saw adrastic slip of 22.2%. Spain was only 1.4% off for thegroup but Kinepolis Granada opened in 2005, withoutwhich a more accurate comparison had the year 9.8% down on 2004.

Belgium, Kinepolis'main territory of operations with nine sites, performed best, 8.1% down. France was slightly behind with8.7%. This excludes results for Kinepolis Nancy whichonly opened in the second half of 2005.