(TBMM) - Ministry of Culture and Tourism Cinema General Director Birol Güven stated that the 2 percent support to be transferred from digital platforms to Turkish cinema will be used only for "big screen cinema" and said that the sales of cinema tickets, which were 77 million before the pandemic, decreased to 29.7 million in 2025. Pointing out that the interest in the cinema industry has decreased, Güven said, "If this support is written to the general budget, we can only use this money in 2028. If it comes to DÖSİMM, we can use it in 2027. If this money comes in 2028, I do not think the cinema has that much time, really, the cinema is in intensive care right now."

Birol Güven, General Director of Cinema of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, made evaluations at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Planning and Budget Commission about the Bill on Amendments to Certain Laws and Decree Laws, which envisages a 2 percent support transfer from digital platforms to Turkish cinema and contains regulations regarding the economy.

Stating that the contents produced in cinema and digital platforms should be evaluated differently from each other, Güven said, "Now, cinema is not real, it is a fiction, but all the emotions created in the cinema are real. We have four conditions for these emotions to be experienced: One is a big silver screen, the other is a high sound design, a dark environment and watching together. We can only talk about the art of cinema under these conditions. When we say supporting cinema, protecting cinema, we only mean silver screen cinematography. There is no such term, I am just saying it to be clear. "We shouldn't really compare what we watch with what we watch on digital media. They are two very different things," he said.

Stating that Türkiye is a country with a cinema culture, Güven said that the interest in movie theaters has decreased significantly in recent years.

Güven said, "Turkey is a cinema country, buying tickets and going to the cinema is in our genetics, it is in our culture, but unfortunately we are losing this. Before the pandemic, we were a country where 77 million tickets were sold. This number dropped to 29.7 million in 2025. We have very bad predictions for 2026. Cinema is in a really difficult situation, it is getting worse."

"FRANCE'S CINEMA SUPPORT IS 720 MILLION EURO, Türkiye'S 5 MILLION EURO"

Comparing the public resources allocated to cinema, Güven pointed out that the budget allocated by France to cinema supports was 720 million euros in 2023, and the budget allocated by Türkiye to cinema supports in the said period was 5 million euros.

Stating that producers and actors in the cinema industry are moving away from the big screen, Güven said, "Producers, filmmakers, and stars of the cinema are running away from the big screen because the costs are very high and there is a possibility that the money will not come back. That is why feature films are not produced, we cannot sell tickets because we cannot produce good films."

Giving information about cinema ticket prices, Güven stated that the average ticket price in Türkiye is 250 lira for foreign films and 212 lira for domestic films. Güven said, "Wednesdays are cinema days, the price on Wednesdays is 140 liras. Of course, we know that there are cinemas that sell very expensive tickets, but our average is 212 liras for local movies."

Underlining that Türkiye was one of the countries that stood out in terms of box office share of domestic films in the past, Güven said, "Turkey was one of the few countries that beat American cinema. In other words, our audience generally went to Turkish films at a rate of 60 percent in ticket sales. We lost this too, now this rate has dropped to 40 percent."

Explaining the reason for transferring 2 percent of the annual net sales of media service providers that provide conditional access and operators that broadcast TV series or movies over the internet, through the Central Directorate of Revolving Fund Management (DÖSİMM) affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Güven said, "The most important reason why this requested support comes to DÖSİMM is this: If this income is written to the general budget, we can only use this money in 2028, and if it comes to DÖSİMM, we can use it in 2027." "And this money will only be used in big screen cinema. If this money comes in 2028, I don't think cinema has that time, cinema is really in intensive care right now."