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EU gross box office slightly up in 2014
Based on provisional data the European Audiovisual Observatory estimates that gross box office takings in the 28 EU member states increased marginally to EUR 6.32 billion in 2014, up EUR 40 million on 2013. This is 0.6% higher than the previous year but still represents the second lowest level in the past five years. As in 2013 GBO growth was proportional to the change in underlying admissions which grew modestly by 0.7% to an estimated 911 million tickets sold, around 6.5 million more than in 2013. This indicates that the pan-European average ticket price – measured in Euros – has remained more or less stable at EUR 6.9 since 2012.
Measured in local currencies GBO increased in a total of 14 and decreased in 13 out of the 27 EU member states for which data are available. The small growth in cumulative EU box office (in EUR) was primarily ensured by strong year-on-year performances in France, Spain (+EUR 15 million. +3.0%) and Poland (+EUR 15 million, +9.7%) as well as the appreciation of the British Pound which led to an increase in the Euro value of UK GBO, despite a 2.3% decrease when measured in GBP. At the other end of the spectrum, the largest declines in GBO – in absolute terms – were registered in Italy (-EUR 46 million, -7.1%) and Germany (-EUR 43 million, -4.2%).
Outside of the EU, the Russian Federation confirmed its position as the second largest European market in terms of admissions with 175 million tickets sold and a GBO of RUB 43.3 billion, a 2.4% increase on 2013. While Russian box office growth seems to have somewhat levelled out, Turkey continued its impressive growth trend of recent years with admissions jumping to 61.4 million, up 22% from 2013 and GBO increasing to TRY 655 million (+30%), the highest level in the past few decades. Both markets however faced sharp declines in their currencies in 2014, so that GBO measured in EUR actually declined by 14% to EUR 862 million in the case of Russia and by 2.5% to EUR 189 million in the case of Turkey.
The Hobbit, The Hunger Games and How to Train Your Dragon sequels top the European Union charts in 2014
As in previous years, sequels and spin-offs featured prominently in the 2014 European Union box office charts. Led by The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (22.7 mio. admissions), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (20.1 mio.) and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (17.5 mio.) a total of nine sequels or spin-offs made it into the top 20, five of them into the top 10.
French culture clash comedy Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu (Serial (Bad) Weddings) and Luc Besson’s sci-fi thriller Lucy stood out among European films, selling 17.1 and 15.2 million tickets in the EU respectively. Other exceptionally successful films include the Spanish comedy Ocho apellidos vascos (Spanish Affair), which became the highest grossing Spanish film of all time, and British family comedyPaddington, both of which made it into the list of the 25 top grossing films in 2014.
It is interesting to note that, just as in 2013, the top blockbusters attracted significantly fewer cinema-goers than in the previous years, if one compares them, for example, with the 42.7 million admissions forSkyfall (2012) or 38.0 million for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2011) and 51.9 million forAvatar (2010). Cumulative admissions to European films on the other hand increased and became the main driver behind the overall growth in cinema attendance in the EU.
Market share for European films reaches record high
Admissions growth was driven primarily by the success of European films while several US blockbusters did not meet expectations and caused the market share for US films to drop from its record level of 69.5% in 2013 to 63.1%. The estimated market share for European films in the EU on the other hand leapt from 26.2% to 33.4%. This is the highest level since the Observatory started to calculate European market share in 1996. This figure excludes European films produced in Europe with incoming US investment which registered their weakest market share in recent history taking just over 0.3% of total admissions.
EU film production volume continues to grow
EU production levels have been steadily increasing over the past decades. This trend continued in 2014, as the estimated number of European feature film productions increased from 1 587 to 1 603 films. This represents yet another record high and breaks down into an estimated 1 118 feature fiction films and 485 feature documentaries. About 32% of European feature films were produced as co-productions while 68% were national productions.
92% of EU screens converted to digital
According to figures provided by MEDIA Salles a total of 1 858 additional EU screens converted to digital projection systems in 2014, bringing the total to 27 899 digital screens. This means that by the end of 2014 about 92% of the EU’s total screen base had been digitised. Only five member states registered digital screen penetration rates below 70%, including the Czech Republic (53%), Greece (38%) and the Baltic States.
More detailed information on European as well as international theatrical markets can be found in FOCUS 2015 World Film Market Trends prepared by the European Audiovisual Observatory for the Cannes Film Market.
Notes for Editors:
- Data have been collected with the collaboration of the EFARN (European Film Agency Research Network).
- All 2014 figures are provisional.
The European Audiovisual Observatory, Council of Europe
Set up in December 1992, the European Audiovisual Observatory’s mission is to gather and distribute information on the audiovisual industry in Europe. The Observatory is a European public service body comprised of 40 member states and the European Union, represented by the European Commission. It operates within the legal framework of the Council of Europe and works alongside a number of partner and professional organisations from within the industry and with a network of correspondents. In addition to contributions to conferences, other major activities are the publication of a Yearbook, newsletters and reports, the compilation and management of databases and the provision of information through the Observatory’s Internet site (http://www.obs.coe.int).
European Union admissions rankings (Tables 2 and 3)
The pan-European film rankings shown in tables 2 and 3 are based on data from all European Union countries for which results have been stored in the LUMIERE database as of 20th April 2015. This database on admissions to films released in Europe is available on-line and free-of-charge, and is the result of collaboration between the European Audiovisual Observatory and various specialised national sources as well as the MEDIA Programme of the European Union. LUMIERE provides country-by-country analysis of admissions for about 35 500 films in distribution in Europe since 1996. Partial 2014 data for 24 European countries is now available, including data for the major European Union markets, as well as data for the North American market.
Market shares (Table 4)
The market shares shown in this figure are based on an analysis of results of films released in member states of the European Union for which admissions data for individual films are made available to the European Audiovisual Observatory. In order to draw up such market shares, a single ‘country of origin’ must be attributed to each film, an attribution that can prove difficult in the case of international productions. In these cases the Observatory’s aim is to attribute a country of origin corresponding to the source of the majority financial input and/or creative control of the project. Since 2005 the Observatory has identified specifically films that have been produced in one or more European countries (or elsewhere) with US investment by using the reference ‘inc’ (incoming investment) in the country of origin attribution. It should be noted, however, that the availability of further information may occasionally lead to changes in the attribution of country of origin and that the origin of a film as attributed in the LUMIERE database may not always be identical with that indicated by national sources.
The provisional data on market shares in the European Union in 2014 shown in table 4 are based on the data on admissions to individual films as collected in the LUMIERE database on 20th April 2015. At this date the coverage rate of the database for admissions in the 24 European Union countries for which data is available was of around 95%. Due to various gaps in data collection and delivery in various countries, coverage of 100% of admissions is currently unachievable.
Number of feature films produced in the European Union (Table 5)
Estimating the total volume of production of feature films in the European Union remains difficult, chiefly due to the risk of double counting of co-productions and to differing national methodologies for the collection of this data. Included in the total for the European Union are feature-length films intended for theatrical exploitation, excluding minority co-productions and US and foreign production in the United Kingdom. For some countries no separate data are available for feature fiction and feature documentary films.
Contacts at the European Audiovisual Observatory:
Alison Hindhaugh (Press Officer)
alison.hindhaugh@coe.int – tel.: +33 (0) 3 90 21 60 10
Martin Kanzler (Analyst, Department for Information on Markets & Financing)
martin.kanzler@coe.int – tel.: +33 (0) 3 90 21 60 00
The European Audiovisual Observatory will be present at the Marché du Film, Cannes
Stand 18.02, Niveau 01
Palais des Festivals
Tel.: +33 (0)4 92 99 81 07
More detailed information can be found in FOCUS 2015 World Film Market Trends compiled by the European Audiovisual Observatory and published by the Marché du Film
Our FOCUS publication will be on sale via our website during the Marché du film (as of 13 May 2014).
See: http://www.obs.coe.int/shop/focus
We will also be selling it on our stand in Cannes.
The European Audiovisual Observatory
Set up in December 1992, the European Audiovisual Observatory’s mission is to gather and distribute information on the audiovisual industry in Europe. The Observatory is a European public service body comprised of 40 member states and the European Union, represented by the European Commission. It operates within the legal framework of the Council of Europe and works alongside a number of partner and professional 
organisations from within the industry and with a network of correspondents. In addition to contributions to conferences, other major activities are the publication of a Yearbook, newsletters and reports, the compilation and management of databases and the provision of information through the Observatory’s Internet site(http://www.obs.coe.int).