Turkey saw a drop in the number of ticket sales last year, while at the same time more people went to the theater.

The total number of cinema tickets sold last year was just over 55 million, dropping 3.3 percent from 2015, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

In the same period, theater sales rose by 2.8 percent to reach over 6 million compared with 2015.

Turkish films were worst affected by the drop in ticket sales, falling 8.9 percent to around 28 million.

Ticket sales for foreign films also dropped by 3.7 percent to around 26 million.

But the cinema industry did not respond to the drop in ticket sales, as the number of cinema halls rose by 5.4 to reach 2,483 across the country. Seat numbers also rose accordingly by 3.3 percent to reach 307,456.

The number of films on offer also increased, rising 8.7 percent to reach 53,443. The Turkish films being shown rose by 5.3 percent while foreign films rose by 11.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of live performances at Turkish theaters rose by 13.8 percent between the 2014-2015 season and the 2015-2016 season, reaching a total of 7,766 in the last season.

However, the number of theaters and seats did not see a radical increase. From the 2014-2015 season and the 2015-2016 season there was a 0.3 percent rise in the number of theaters and a 1.1 percent rise in the total number of seats.

There were 721 theaters dedicated to live performance in Turkey last season with a total seat capacity of 261,885.