German exhibitors report best six months since 2004

Cinema takings rose to $599m (€425m) for the period from January 1 to July 5, beating record takings of $592 (€420m) for the first half of 2004.

Ticket sales rose to 65.04 million compared to 60.17m in the same period last year, although did not top the 72.3 million admissions registered in the first half of 2004.

Sony Pictures is leading the field with a market share of 16.2%, driven by the success of titles including Angels & Demons, so far the year’s top release with $45m (€32m) box office and 4.2m admissions, Terminator Salvation, and Seven Lives. Twentieth Century Fox took a 14.4% share with Warner Bros in third place on 13.6%.

Constantin Film’s success with German film including Mario Barth’s Männersache ($17.3m, €12.3m) and Vivian Naefe’s teenage comedy Wild Chicks And Life ($7.1m, €5.1m) helped it to remain the leading local distributor with a 6.4% share, while Herbert  Kloiber’s Concorde Film garnered a 5.8% share largely thanks to Twilight, Germany’s second most successful release of 2009, with $23.4 (€16.6m) takings.