With the World Cup fervour subsiding, life may now be devoid of exciting things to do for some, so the timing of National Cinema Day on Saturday couldn't have been better.
Twenty-one films will be shown on 38 big screens across Malta offering cinema lovers the chance to watch as many films as they can squeeze into one day for the price of just Lm1.30 each film.
This is the 11th consecutive year that National Cinema Day is being organised and each year thousands look forward to the chance of catching up on the latest releases.
While 2004 was the second best year in terms of attendance, with a staggering 24,000 people in one day, last year admissions dipped to 18,000. The best year was in 2002 when nearly 25,000 people had flocked to the cinemas on National Cinema Day.
KRS general manager Charles Pace believes one of the reasons could be piracy coupled with the fact that 2005 did not go down in the annals of cinematic history as a year that churned out many memorable films.
"This year we're confident that we'll surpass last year's attendances because we have a very good product to entice people back to the cinema," he said.
Among the anticipated blockbusters showing on six screens on Saturday is Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.
Mr Pace said that Disney's film on the misadventures of Jack Sparrow, a follow-up to the 2003 blockbuster, has smashed the box office record set by Spider-Man in 2002 in the US.
The studio estimates the film grossed more than $132 million in its opening weekend, $17 million more than the previous record held by Spider-Man.
The romantic drama The Lake House, starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock should also go down well with the public.
Among the films being screened on Saturday is RV, the comic family adventure starring Robin Williams and Jeff Daniels; The Benchwarmers; and the animated comedy Over The Hedge with the voices of Bruce Willis and William Shatner.
An interesting film is United 93. This is a real time account of the events on United Flight 93, one of the four planes hijacked on September 11, 2001, that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.
Other films include action adventure The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift; the animated adventure The Wild; Poseidon, starring Kurt Russell and Richard Dreyfuss; The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks and Jean Reno; X-Men: The Last Stand; Mission Impossible 3, with Tom Cruise and Laurence Fishbourne; and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.
National Cinema Day will be celebrated at Eden Century Cinemas in St George's Bay and Galleria in Fgura; Empire Cinemas, Bugibba; Embassy Cinema World, Valletta; and The New Sun City Cine Palais, Marsascala.
Due to the celebration of the feast of St George in Victoria, Gozo, cinema day in Gozo will be held at the Citadel Cinema on July 22.
Booking opened yesterday. Early booking is recommended.