German films have been sosuccessful with domestic cinemagoers this year that the 2006 market share forlocal production has already broken the record 24.5% posted two years ago.

According to figurescollated by Nielsen EDI from Jan 2 to Nov 19, German films now have a marketshare of 25.7% thanks to the box office success in recent weeks of such filmsas Tom Tykwer's Perfume - The Story Of AMurderer, Soenke Wortmann's World Cup documentary Deutschland - Ein Sommermaerchen and the comedy 7 Zwerge - Der Wald Ist Nicht Genug which,between them, have held on to the No. 1 spot in the German box-office chartconsecutively for the last ten weeks - a phenonemon not seen in German cinemasfor more than 20 years.

Tykwer's adaptation of theSueskind bestseller is the most successful German production of this year with $48.9m(Euros 37.3m) takings and over 5.3m admissions, followed by Deutschland - Ein Sommermaerchen, 7 Zwerge,The Lives Of Others, and Hui Buh, DasSchlossgespenst.

The year had started offwell for local production with Andreas Dresen's crowd-pleaser Summer In Berlinand other popular successes such as TheWild Soccer Bunch 3, Wild Chicks and TheLives Of Others. By the end of June, German productions had reached thehighest half-year mark since 1997 with a market share of 19.9% and 12.8madmissions.