The Rs 125 or Rs 150 ticket at the neighbourhood multiplex may seem ''exhorbitant'' to the average cinegoer but movie ticket prices are actually the ''cheapest in the world'', an international survey has revealed.

Comparing cinema admission rates with the wages earned by people in various countries of the world, a British survey has found that India offers the cheapest ticket prices.

The second in the line is the United States while neighbouring China has the third lowest ticket prices in the world, a survey by British Trade journal, 'Screen Digest' says.

According to the magazine's 'cinema index', which correlated the ratio of ticket prices with the average wages in a particular country, a cinegoer in India has to work for just 16 minutes to buy a cinema ticket while those in the US have to work for 24 minutes to pay for watching a movie at a cinema hall.

In China, an average cinegoer has to work for 26 minutes to pay for a movie ticket.

The most expensive place for the cinegoer is Bulgaria where an average film buff has to work 123 minutes to be able to afford a ticket.

According to the survey, the average work time needed to pay for a film ticket is 57 minutes.

The survey comes even as the 'high' admission rates charged by multiplexes in various parts of India have drawn criticism from various quarters, leading several of them to reduce their entry rates on weekdays as well as for morning and afternoon shows.

For example, while the PVR Plaza in Delhi, whose ticket was earlier priced at Rs 150, has, over the last month, reduced its entry rates to Rs 100 on weekdays and Rs 125 on weekends. Similarly, the entry ticket rates at PVR Faridabad, PVR Vikaspuri, PVR Naraina, as well as for some shows at the PVR Saket, have been reduced by Rs 25 to Rs 50.