New visitor record in 2024

Focus Film Theater looks back on a successful year. The theater, which has been located at Audrey Hepburn Square in Arnhem since 2018, once again broke its attendance record with over 175,000 filmgoers, about 8,000 more than in 2023.

It’s the cherry on top of an already celebratory year: in 2024, the theater celebrated its 50th anniversary. Focus is thrilled with the rapidly growing number of people from Arnhem and the surrounding areas who are discovering the cinema. Since moving from Korenmarkt to Audrey Hepburn Square, visitor numbers have steadily increased, and Focus sees the audience becoming more diverse. With five screening rooms, an open-air rooftop cinema, and a modern café-restaurant, the contemporary building offers plenty of opportunities for a varied program for a diverse audience. In 2025, Focus expects to welcome its one-millionth visitor at this location—a milestone to look forward to!

The year of classics

2024 was the year of the classics, which can count on a growing audience in Arnhem. Last year, around 100 classics were shown at Focus, many of which were chosen by the visitors themselves. The year was marked by the anniversary program 50 Years of Focus in 50 Films, featuring fifty memorable films from the past fifty years selected by friends and acquaintances of Focus. In December, this diverse series concluded with the favorite of alderwoman Cathelijne Bouwkamp: Everything Everywhere All at Once. The most attended classics from this program were Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, and the Russian Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. The successful Morgenstond classic film series, in collaboration with film journalist Kevin Toma, also took place for the second and third time, and a large number of classics were shown during the Christmas holidays and in the summer program in the open-air rooftop theater. The most attended classic was Wim Wenders’ road movie Paris, Texas, which was re-released in a restored 4K version and is currently still showing at Focus.

But classics aren’t the only special screenings at Focus outside the regular programming. For example, the well-attended seventh edition of Uitnacht Arnhem took place, Focus organized the sixth Arnhem edition of this short film festival together with Go Short, the Media Art Festival was held in collaboration with ArtEZ and Museum Arnhem, and there was an extensive program around 80 years of Operation Market Garden. New were the collaborations with Arnhem Electricity Week, the cultural program Verre Binding, and the ART project, which offers free art and culture to young people in Arnhem. The unique open-air cinema on the roof was well used; almost sixty screenings took place here, including many during the warm summer months, but also a number of sold-out winter editions.

Best visited films

Of course, in 2024 Focus Filmtheater also showed plenty of current films. The most attended title of 2024 was Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliantly crafted Poor Things with Oscar winner Emma Stone, followed by the crushing war drama The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer in second place, and in third place the feel-good film The Holdovers by Alexander Payne.

The top ten from 2024:

1. Poor Things
2. The Zone of Interest
3. The Holdovers
4. Conclave
5. Wicked Little Letters
6. Small Things Like These
7. Songs of Earth
8. All of Us Strangers
9. Lee
10. The Outrun

Focus Food and Drinks

Focus Food and Drinks, the café-restaurant under the same roof as the cinema, is running at full speed and will end 2024 on a positive note. The combination of a cinema and a full-service restaurant turns out to be a welcome addition and leads to successful setups like the weekly Sunday film breakfast and special menus for movies. On top of that, more and more visitors are coming to Focus Eten en Drinken just for coffee, drinks, lunch, or dinner, even if they’re not seeing a film.