In 2021, cinemas in Malta and Gozo projected 358 different film titles and registered a total of 269,763 admissions, statistics issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) show.

During that year, there were six cinema establishments with a total of 25 screens and a seating capacity of 1,633 in operation around the Maltese islands, the NSO said.

Of these six cinemas, two were situated in Gozo.

"A total of 358 film titles and 21,297 screenings were exhibited in 2021, amounting to an average of 59 screenings per film. Last year, cinemas registered a total of 269,763 admissions. Maltese productions, many of which belonged to the short films rather than the feature films category, had 11,938 admissions with a total gross box office of €87,176 in 439 screenings. On the other hand, foreign productions, which besides the traditional feature films included also event cinema, had 257,825 admissions with a total gross box office of €1,881,087 in 20,858 screenings."

"During the second year of the pandemic, cinema audiences had a choice of 358 distinct shows, of which just under two-thirds were fiction films. These films attracted over four-fifths of total admissions. During 2021, the most popular film titles were 'No Time to Die', 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Fast & Furious 9' amounting to 11.9%, 9.3% and 5.2% of total admissions respectively."

In terms of age classification, 28.2% of films shown in cinemas were rated '15', while 18.2% were rated as '12A'. Those rated as '18' were lowest at 4.2%.

"The running time of 59.8% of the films projected in 2021 fell within the 76 to 120 minutes bracket. These were followed by screenings with a duration of up to 60 minutes, amounting to 20.6%. As per type of screening, the 'Live/Encore' type of screenings, including operas, ballets, and theatre, had the longest running time with an average of 140 minutes. On the other hand, documentaries were the shortest with an average running time of 69 minutes. With reference to the number of staff members, last year, cinemas were found to be employing an average of 77 persons, of which 79.2% were engaged on a part-time basis."