Archive International comparisons Time taken to earn money for a cinema ticket in Australia and selected countries, 2003 Screen Digest’s Cinema Index compares the cost of a ticket with average earnings. It shows the time taken (in minutes) to earn enough money to buy a cinema ticket. The lower the number in minutes, the less expensive a cinema ticket is relative to average earnings in that country. The global average time taken to earn enough money for a cinema ticket in 2003 was 57 minutes. Australia’s Cinema Index was below average, at 48 minutes. The regions with the highest ticket prices also have the highest average net hourly incomes, meaning that both Western Europe and North America have low Cinema Index numbers. Rank (2003) Country Minutes needed to work to buy a cinema ticket 1 India 16.11 2 US 23.86 3 China 25.73 4 Luxembourg 27.42 5 Ireland 29.90 6 Norway 31.50 7 Switzerland 32.74 8 South Africa 32.75 9 Belgium 34.40 10 Canada 34.64 11 UK 35.36 12 Philippines 35.50 13 Denmark 35.64 14 Germany 36.88 15 Malaysia 38.52 16 France 38.61 17 Austria 39.96 18 Netherlands 40.45 19 Spain 42.10 20 New Zealand 43.64 21 Finland 44.49 22 Japan 47.63 23 Singapore 47.70 24 UAE 48.04 25 Australia 48.35 26 Chile 49.08 27 Greece 50.64 28 Sweden 51.31 29 South Korea 52.42 30 Hong Kong 54.50 31 Portugal 55.60 32 Average 56.61 33 Turkey 57.21 34 Venezuela 60.32 35 Italy 63.44 36 Taiwan 64.27 37 Argentina 64.97 38 Hungary 67.10 39 Romania 67.54 40 Israel 67.97 41 Brazil 68.14 42 Slovenia 71.77 43 Indonesia 72.80 44 Slovakia 74.31 45 Czech Republic 79.09 46 Latvia 90.39 47 Mexico 93.80 48 Poland 95.82 49 Russia 104.45 50 Lithuania 105.58 51 Thailand 108.73 52 Estonia 117.92 53 Bulgaria 122.75 Source: Screen Digest February 2005.