Cinema attendance in Brussels on the decline

Brussels cinemas last year counted about 209,000 less visitors than in 2012, a decrease of 5.4%, reports brusselnieuws.be, according to figures from the FPS Economy. Throughout Belgium, movie audience numbers fell by 4.1% between 2012 and 2013.

The Brussels cinemas hold up better than those in the southern part of the country, with 576,000 less visitors to cinemas in Wallonia, a decrease of 7.5%. Flemish cinemas, meanwhile, only lost about 1% of visitors.

According to the FPS Economy, the weather in 2013 played a role. "First of all, the winter was long and harsh, so people barely left home," said Secretary Thierry Laermans on radio station FM Brussel. "And then we also had a hot summer, which is also not good for ticket sales.”

“Flanders had the advantage of a couple of crowd-pleasers, such as FC De Kampioenen and Marina, to bring up visitor numbers by the end of the year, but Brussels and Wallonia did not."