According to Moroccan cinema critic and historian, Ahmed Sijilimassi, Moroccan cinemagoers declined to 6 million in 2005 compared to 20 million in the 1990s. Maghreb Arabe Presse reports that the critic pointed out that the 143 local movie-theatres are expected to receive 6 million cinemagoers in 2005 compared to the 175 movie-theatres that hosted 20 millions in the 1990s. He noted that building a movie-theatre is no longer considered to be a profitable business and that piracy, bad distribution and exploitation, decoded cinema satellite channels and internet hacking make it almost impossible for the industry to recover.
On the other hand, Sijilimassi said that Moroccan cinema gives birth each year to 10-12 long feature-length movies and 15-20 short feature-length movies. This is achieved mainly thanks to governmental subsidies to film production. According to Sijilimassi, Morocco is one of the only Arab countries which subsidies cinema production and challenges the Egyptian supremacy in this field.
