HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's two biggest cinema chains are slashing prices to just over 3 U.S. dollars a seat to combat rampant movie piracy, DPA said Tuesday.

UA and Broadway cinemas will offer the cut-price seats on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the next four weeks in a promotion that will make going to the pictures in Hong Kong cheaper than in Shanghai or Beijing.

The promotion is aimed at tackling widespread movie piracy, which sees newly released films available on pirated dvds for 1.5 U.S. dollars a copy within days of their first screening.

"When the ticket price is this low, why go out and buy a pirated dvd?" UA cinemas director Don Meyer told the South China **Morning Post** newspaper.

The discounted tickets are around half the normal Hong Kong price.

Box-office revenues in Hong Kong have fallen from a peak of 25 million U.S. dollars in February 1994 to 16 million U.S. dollars in the same month last year, largely blamed on piracy.

The cinema offers will extend to 81 of Hong Kong's 180 screens.

The average price of a cinema ticket in Beijing is 3.8 U.S. dollars and in Shanghai 5.7 U.S. dollars.