Intensive preparations, a huge variety of programs and an overwhelming response from the audience made the first ever Kinofest a rousing success in Germany this past weekend. Cinemas throughout the country combined to not only break this year’s previous admissions record, but also make it the weekend with the highest number of visitors in the last ten years, matching a level hit in September 2019.

The 685 participating cinemas with their 3,193 screens and 560,878 seats recorded almost 1.1 million visitors during the two day promotional event. “Minions: The Rise of Grue,” “After Forever” and “Where the Crawdads Sing” were the top three films during the event. Kinofest is an initiative of the industry associations HDF KINO, AG Kino Gilde, the Federal Association of Municipal Film Theatres, the Association of Film Distributors (Vdf) and the AG Distribution.

According to Christine Berg, a member of the HDF KINO board, it looks as if Kinofest may be getting a sequel or become a franchise. “Our goal was to celebrate cinema with a low-threshold offer and to bring back the magic of the big screen to the audience,” she said in a statement. “This lays the foundation for an event that will take place regularly from now on, which we will establish as a fixture in the annual event calendar with this very good start.”