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Entertainment facilities, zoos post 30% rise in revenues in March

The best growth after the introduction of the restrictive measures on the work of cultural institutions occurred last month

© Artyom Geodakyan/TASS

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. Theatres, museums, concert halls, cinemas and zoos posted a 30.4% increase in revenues in March 2021, according to research conducted by OFD.ru based on data from nationwide cash register receipts from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, published on Thursday.

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According to the analyzed data, the best growth after the introduction of the restrictive measures on the work of cultural institutions occurred in March, which demonstrated a figure of 30.4%. In Q1 2021, the earnings of theatre and concert companies soared 38% higher than in Q4 2020.

After the sweeping restrictions were introduced in November 2020, both in Moscow and many other regions of the country, concert halls, theatre platforms, as well as cinemas, federally-funded museums, recreation parks and zoos were forced to reduce their number of visitors to 25% of their total capacity. Starting January 22, 2021, these restrictions were partially lifted, though the number of visitors still cannot surpass 50%.

Theatre and concert companies posted a 9.4% drop in November, a 20.6% increase in December, and a slight rise in January and February as well - by 8.7% and 8%, respectively.

The monthly comparative revenue performance of zoos, recreation parks, museums and nature reserves demonstrated the following dynamics in the reporting period: in November and December it declined by 39.6% and 13.4%, respectively.

A positive turnaround occurred in January as revenues surged by 116.9%, while a slight rise of 4.8% was also seen in February, meanwhile in March revenues climbed 48.4%. All in all, public recreational and cultural sites posted a 48-percent rise in revenues in Q1 2021 quarter-on-quarter.

Cinemas reported a 14.4% increase in revenues in November, while in December there was a slight decline by 1.6%. In January, after the restrictions were lifted, there was an expected increase, registering 103.9%, which was probably also connected with the New Year holidays. Meanwhile, in February cinema revenues dropped by 26.6% while in March they moved up 9.4%. That said, cinemas’ total Q1 revenues soared by 78% quarter-on-quarter.

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