Wednesday discount drives cinema attendance revival

ISTANBUL

The Türkiye stand at the 75th Berlinale hosts numerous professionals.

Discounted Wednesday screenings have become a significant engine of growth for Türkiye’s cinema industry, reshaping audience habits by drawing millions of moviegoers to theaters on weekdays and helping boost both ticket sales and box office revenue.

A nationwide discounted cinema campaign that began in late 2025 has evolved into one of the Turkish film industry’s strongest growth drivers, according to data from Box Office Türkiye.

The initiative was launched after the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Cinema Festival, held on Sept. 27-28, 2025, when tickets for all films were capped at 80 Turkish Liras (around $1.25) across 1,500 screens in 80 cities. The promotion attracted more than 780,000 admissions over the weekend, prompting authorities to extend discounted Wednesdays through the end of the year before continuing the campaign into 2026.

The strategy has since delivered measurable results. Total cinema attendance in the first half of 2026 rose 4.8 percent year-on-year to 14.72 million, while box office revenue climbed 22.3 percent to 3.44 billion liras despite average ticket prices increasing 16.8 percent to 234 liras.

Wednesday admissions, with tickets offered at a fixed promotional price averaging 140 liras, surged from 1.7 million in the first half of 2025 to more than 3.3 million this year.

As a result, Wednesday’s share of total admissions jumped from 12.2 percent to 22.6 percent, surpassing both Saturday and Sunday individually as the busiest cinema day.