TEHRAN -- The lights of cinema theaters are on until 12:00 midnight and seats are packed full with interested moviegoers who like to spend their nights of Ramadan outside watching movies.

The new project of screening movies until late at night under the title “Iftar to Sahar” was launched at the beginning of Ramadan this year in several cinemas and has been enthusiastically attended by moviegoers.
Compared with previous years, brisk ticket sales for onscreen movies demonstrate the success of the new plan, said director of distributor FilmIran Ali Sartipi.
“We are seeing a ticket sales increase of over 5 times,” he said, adding that half-price tickets also have been a good aid to draw more moviegoers to the movies.
“There are some seasons over the year when the cinema looses its fans like the month of Ramadan and Muharram, but now, this new project will help boost the cinema economy once again,” he remarked, adding that it will also help screen a higher number of productions within a year.
“We are also planning to add more theaters in the coming days. In addition, several other cities including Isfahan and Shiraz are undertaking special screenings during Ramadan,” he mentioned.
“For example, last week all the seats were full in the Mellat cinema in the Shohada district of Tehran at 12:30 midnight for the film ‘The Postman Doesn’t Knock Three Times’ by Hassan Fat’hi.
The onscreen movies of “Gamecock” (Masud Atyabi) and “Checkmate” (Jamshid Heidari) in the Javan cinema were also warmly received by audiences late at night.
Javan cinema director Mohammadreza Saberi believes the new plan is a worthwhile project, encouraging many interested moviegoers to come to the cinema at night.
Two additional theaters, Africa and Esteqlal, have also begun cooperating in this project.
Photo: Tehrani people go to the Azadi Cinema to spend their nights watching films scheduled for the Iftar to Sahar program on August 25, 2009. (Fars/Hamed Malekpur)