Huge growth in number of multiplex cinemas. - According to an article in the French newspaper, Les Échos, the number of multiplex cinemas in the world has risen dramatically and in 2012 there was a total of 130,000 screens (+5% compared to 2011). In Europe the number of multiplex cinema screens stood at 29,500, compared to 40,000 in the US. Emerging economies in the world have also seen a spectacular rise in the number of multiplex cinemas, with India and China, in particular, experiencing sharp growth. The latter has seen the number of multiplex cinema screens increase threefold since 2008 to 13,200 in 2012, for an audience of 470 million cinemagoers. Last year it had the second biggest box office receipts in the world, with $2.7 billion generated from cinemagoers. This is behind North America, still at the top of the league, but is ahead of Japan, which is in third place. In India, the number of screens rose to 12,000 last year. According to the CEO of Unifrance, Xavier Lardoux, this phenomenon can be explained by zero growth in the number of screens in the three major global markets, the US, Europe and Japan, while emerging economies like China, India, Russia and South America have experienced strong growth. Between 2008 and 2012, the rate of growth in the number of screens in Turkey rose by 80%; 70% in Russia and 30% in Brazil. This growth, unfortunately, has not led to greater film diversity and all of these multiplex cinemas are more likely to show US blockbusters or national productions if they are powerful enough (Japan and China). (IL/trans.fl)