Maltese films proved more popular on average than American or European movies in local cinemas last year.

The five local productions screened in 2013 attracted an average of 5,000 admissions each, compared with 3,000 for US movies and only about 400 for films originating from countries in the European Union.

On the other hand, US movies stayed in cinemas for twice as long on average .

The Maltese movies attracted 25,400 admissions in all, for a total of just over 1,000 screenings, which grossed €169,000 in box office receipts.

The local films made up 3.6 per cent of the total 702,239 admissions to all movies. The lion’s share – 87.5 per cent – was for the 368 films that originated from the US, which grossed €3.4 million.

The National Statistics Office survey, carried out among the eight cinemas in Malta and Gozo, revealed that in 2013, there were 38 screens, with a total seating capacity of 7,107.

Twenty-six screens in seven cinemas were accessible to people with disabilities.

More than two-thirds of the screens were still equipped with the traditional analogue film format, eight per cent were equipped to project digital 3D films only and 21 per cent were equipped to project more than one type of format. Total admissions for 3D movies accounted for 25.3 per cent of the total.

Total screenings amounted to 56,816, with an average 152.3 screenings per film.

In 2013, the most popular movie was Fast and Furious 6 followed by The Smurfs 2, registering 27,277 and 25,215 admissions, respectively.

The third most popular film was Frozen with 20,007 admissions.