ABSTRACT
In 1903 the first documented screening took place in Iceland, during the period when Reykjavik was developing into a kind of capital. The population in the smaller coastal towns was increasing as people moved in from the countryside, and the resulting greater demand for amusement and culture made the modern form of culture represented by film extremely popular. In 1906 Reykjavik Cinema Theatre was inaugurated, and in 1912 a rival cinema opened. Remarkably enough this did not lead to any drop in attendance at the original theatre: thus the number of visitors almost doubled in a town that by this time had only 11,600 inhabitants. Cinema statistics in Iceland have always been and still are topmost among the Nordic countries.
