Entrepreneur Kristjan Kongo's Forum Cinema chain sold the Viljandi cinema, which opened in 2017, to Linnamäe both as a result of economic challenges and to exit the sector in Estonia, while for its part, MM Grupp had long been interested in the venue.

Kongo said: "MM Grupp had been interested in buying this cinema for years."

"They had periodically inquired about the options, but my interest has been in finding funding for the entire chain. Then again, since times are tough – and it seems that these tough times will prevail for a while – it was no more possible to subsidize Forum Cinemas' operations, so a solution had to be found. I contacted MM Grupp and offered it up for sale."

The cinema market has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, he said, while competition from streaming and other platforms and a shortage of major, successful and good quality movies has exacerbated this.

"Of course, I don't solely blame the pandemic, the whole industry has changed somewhat compared with what it was before the pandemic," Kongo went on.

Kongo will exit the Estonian cinema business entirely to focus on expanding his operations in Lithuania, where local productions have been more successful, he said.

Apollo is set to gradually take on Forum Cinemas employees and its operations in Viljandi, over a period expected to take a few months.

Apollo had already purchased the Coca Cola Plaza cinema from Forum in 2022, leaving the Viljandi movie theater the only one still to its name in Estonia. However, Forum operates cinemas in Latvia and Lithuania, and also operates  Finnkino Oy, Finland's largest cinema chain.

The sale in Estonia means that Apollo will more or less have a monopoly on mainstream blockbuster movie-showing cinemas.

Linnamäe's interests include the Magnum Medical pharmaceuticals wholesaler and the Postimees media group, as well as the Apollo entertainments group.

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