The German film, a blockbuster.

Good news at the beginning of the Film Festival: A day before the opening of the 59th Berlinale Film Board reported that the Germans once again go to the cinema - and so often German productions at how for 17 years.

 

Berlin - The German films behaved it is like for many years with the German pop music. It gave them, but nobody was interested in them. That has finally changed. As the Film Board (FFA) announced on Wednesday, the Germans once more to the cinema - and what the national film promoters look even more likely, where they look more and more German productions.

Warner Bros.
Movie scene from "KeinOhrHasen": Successful as James Bond

In the past year were 129.4 million admissions were counted and four million more than in 2007 - an increase of 3.2 percent. In the cinema in 2007 the industry still had a visitor drop by more than eight percent (11.3 million viewers) have to lament.

Also at the box office was specifically more money. The total turnover rose by 4.9 percent or 36.8 million euros to 794.7 million euros.

Significantly in this success is: Above all, the German film has a significant positive overall visitors to the outcome. Without Til Schweiger ( "KeinOhrHasen"), Bernd Eichinger ( "The Baader-Meinhof Complex") and Co. probably would have red numbers. With a market share of 26.6 percent achieved in German films, but the highest percentage since 1991: Nearly 34 million visitors sparked January to December 2008 at the box office for tickets for a German production. Last year there were just 23.4 million (18.9 percent).

In absolute numbers of visitors, however, were the years 2004 and 2006 with 36.7 or 34.7 million visitors even better for the German film. Until the turn of the millennium, the German market only in exceptional years, over 15 percent.

Most successful film of 2008 was "KeinOhrHasen" with 4.9 million visitors, thus the new James Bond
"Ein Quantum Trost" (4.7 million) and the animated film "Madagascar 2" with 4.8 million visitors to the sites noted. Overall there were eleven German productions on the one-million-visitor mark - including
"The Wave," "The Wild Soccer Bunch", "Cherry Blossom"
"The Baader Meinhof Complex" and "Krabat" - also a record figure since the reunification.

With the German-British co-production
"Our Earth" (3.8 million visitors) is the first time a documentary film in the Top 10 of the most successful films of the year.

Overall, last year with 471 fewer reboots 13 films in the cinemas, 185 were German productions or co-productions with German participation, 154 were from the United States.

Were 95 cinemas in the past year in Germany, new or reopened, 117 mostly for economic reasons. According to FFA has thus the number of closures on the two previous years.

2009 rested the hopes of the cinema and film industry, inter alia, on films such as the new "Harry Potter", "Ice Age 3", but also on international co-productions with German participation, such as Tom Tykwer's "The International" and "readers" with Kate Winslet, both running at the Berlinale.