Shetland Arts revealed this evening that attendances at Mareel Cinema have now reached over 100,000 since the first cinema screening on 31 August 2012.
This is more than double the 39,000 attendances aimed for in the 2008 business plan for the venue in its first year.
The lucky one hundred thousandth ticket holder was selected to win a special prize: a year’s free Gold Card subscription for unlimited film at Mareel. The winner was announced at Home Made, a screening of short films made by Shetlanders showing at Mareel this evening as part of Screenplay 2013.
Shetland Arts also revealed that, as a special surprise to celebrate surpassing 100,000 cinema attendees, films until 19 September have been put on sale early, allowing customers to book their cinema visits for the next two weeks in advance.
Shetland Arts’ Director Gwilym Gibbons said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to the cinema-going public of Shetland, the level of attendance is extraordinary when we consider the number of visits that is per head of the population. We’re delighted that the level of cinema attendance has been sustained beyond the “honeymoon period” of the first few months of opening last year, with Despicable Me 2 (which opened on 28 June this year) being our second busiest week of cinema since we opened.”
