Statistical Center: 81% of Iran's Population Did Not Go to the Cinema Last Year

The Statistical Center of Iran announced based on the results of a statistical survey that 81% of the 'population of Iran' did not go to the cinema last year, and about 95% did not attend theater performances. The summary of the report published on the website of the Statistical Center does not mention the number of individuals surveyed as a sample, but it generalizes this statistic to the entire population of the country. According to this data, 81.1% of the 'population of Iran' did not go to the cinema even once last year, and 94.9% did not watch theater. Additionally, 32% of the population did not listen to music in the past year, and 41.8% did not read any non-academic books in the same period. In the 2016 census, the Statistical Center had reported that 25 million people, or about 30% of the population, went to the cinema. The report does not explain the characteristics and reasons for those who do not go to the cinema. The 'Cultural Activities of Households Survey' has been conducted since 2014, and the percentage of those who did not go to the cinema and theater has not changed significantly in recent years. In 2015, 80% of individuals did not go to the cinema, and about 94% did not see theater performances. According to official reports, until 2013, only over 31 million people had access to cinemas in Iran, while over 43 million were deprived of this access. Furthermore, according to the Statistical Center's report in 2016, there was one cinema seat for every 620 people in the country, which was 4% less than in 2006. Meanwhile, the newspaper 'Ghanoun' reported last year that cinema construction growth in Iran has been negative 44% over the past 35 years. Some provinces, including Ilam, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and Sistan and Baluchestan, have only one cinema. According to a previous report from the Statistical Center in 2016, in Hormozgan, there was one cinema seat for every 4,712 people, in Zanjan for 4,598, in Sistan and Baluchestan for 3,828, in Ilam for 2,763, and in Qazvin for 1,550 people. Ali Rabiei, the former Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, previously stated that most cities where protests occurred last December lacked cultural facilities such as cinemas and theaters and 'turn into dead cities after 5 PM.' The existence of censorship and other factors has prevented the record for film sales during the Shah's regime from being broken even after 40 years of the Islamic Republic. Although during this period, due to a significant increase in cinema ticket prices, the record for the monetary value of cinema sales in Iran has been broken, the record for the number of spectators has not. Considering inflation rates, population size, and the number of theaters, popular films from earlier years such as 'Ganj-e Qarun,' 'Ghaisar,' and 'Dar Emtehad-e Shab' still have a significant gap in the number of viewers compared to post-revolution blockbuster films.