Turkey's theatre audience surges in 2018

ANKARA

Turkey's theatre audience surged 11.9% on a yearly basis in 2018, the country's statistical authority announced on Wednesday.

Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said the number of theatre audiences reached 7.84 million last year, up from around 7 million audiences in 2017.

"Number of the theater halls was 736 and the seating capacity reached 314,479," the institute said.

Official figures also revealed that the performances in theater halls totaled over 33,500 in the same period.

Number of moviegoers, however, went down by 5.4% year-on-year, amounting to almost 64.8 million.

"In 2018, the number of movie houses increased by 6.2% compared to 2017 and reached 2,858.

"During this period, the number of seats in the movie houses increased by 4.2% and audience capacity reached to 342,813," according to TurkStat.

The institute also said number of locally produced movies jumped by 19.3% to 30,145, while the number of foreign productions rose by 7.3% to 35,356.