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Promising first quarter 2014
Provisional Q1 figures from 11 EU markets indicate that admissions in the European Union increased in the first three months of this year, compared to Q1 2013. Quarterly admissions increased significantly in 3 out of the 5 big EU markets, namely in France (+18.9%), Italy (+13%) and Spain (+8.7%), outweighing smaller decreases in Germany and the UK. On a cumulative basis admissions in these five markets increased by 5.6%. As these markets represent around 75% of total EU admissions, it can be assumed that total EU admissions increased in the first quarter. This would also be backed up by data from six additional EU Member States which registered a growth in cinema attendance, including the Netherlands (+4.8%), Sweden (+17.9%), Greece (+8.9%) or Slowakia (+49.5%).
Outside of the EU admissions showed an even stronger increase with the Russian Federation and Turkey registering respectively a 18.6% and 30.9% increase in quarterly admissions year-on-year.
EU gross box office hike came to a preliminary halt in 2013
EU gross box office declined in 2013 for the first time since 2005. GBO takings in the 28 EU Member States fell to an estimated EUR 6.29 billion, a 4.3% drop compared to 2012’s record high of EUR 6.57 billion. In the past five years GBO growth has been primarily fuelled by increasing ticket prices which kept box office growing despite falling admissions. This was no longer the case in 2013 when the average ticket price in the EU actually marginally decreased for the first time since films like Avatar kick-started digital conversion in 2009.
While the novelty factor of digital 3D blockbusters initially boosted underlying cinema attendance to 982 million in 2009, admissions have been decreasing more or less continuously since then. First they dropped to around 965 million in 2010 and 2011 before falling in a more pronounced manner to 945 million in 2012 and ultimately 907.1 million in 2013, the lowest level since 2005.
Admissions decreased in 20 out of the 28 EU Member States with only Italy registering a significant year-on-year increase in cinema attendance (+6.6 million). The overall drop in EU admissions was primarily caused by declining markets in Spain (-15.4 million), France (-10.0 million), the UK (-7 million) and Germany (-5.4 million).
As often in the past years, significant growth was only achieved outside of the EU. With admissions growing by 10.4% to 177.1 million tickets sold in 2013 the Russian Federation overtook the UK as the second largest European market in terms of admissions. Box office records were also broken in Turkey, with cinema attendance growing by 14.8% to 50.4 million admissions, the highest level in the past few decades.
Despicable Me, The Hobbit and Iron Man sequels top the European Union charts in 2013
As in previous years, sequels and spin-offs featured prominently in the 2013 European Union box office charts. Led by the latest instalments of Despicable Me, The Hobbit and Iron Man a total of 11 sequels / prequels / spin-offs made it into the top 20, seven of them into the top 10. It is interesting to note that 2013 was characterized by the lack of a pan-European breakout success and that the top films attracted significantly less viewers than in the past years. E.g. Despicable Me 2, the top ranking film in 2013, generated ‘only’ 25.4 million admissions. This compares to 42.7 million admissions for Skyfall (2012) or 38.0 million for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2011) and 51.9 million for Avatar (2010). The comparatively low admission figure for top ranking films most likely contributed to the overall decline in EU box office in 2013.
Les Misérables became the most watched European film (8.9 million tickets sold) ahead of Italian runaway success Sole a catinelle, a father / son vacation comedy, selling over 8 million tickets, more than any other film in recent history in Italy.
Market share for European films down to 26.2%
Based on provisional figures, estimated market share for European films in the EU dropped from 28.9% to 26.2% in 2013. This figure excludes European films produced in Europe with incoming US investment, which – in the absence of runaway successes like Skyfall or the Harry Potter franchise – registered their weakest market share in recent history taking just over 1% of total admissions. Market share for US films on the other hand increased from 62.8% to an estimated 69.1%, the highest market share in the past ten years. The increase market share for films from other parts of the world is largely due to the success of The Great Gatsby which is counted as an Australian majority co-production.
EU film production levels on the up
EU production levels continued to grow, albeit in a moderate manner, to an estimated 1 546 feature films in 2013, 18 films more than in 2012. This represents yet another record high and breaks down into an estimated 1 075 feature fiction films and 471 feature documentaries. Fiction films therefore accounted for about 70% of total film output. Growth was however driven primarily by an increasing number in feature documentaries, up 15 films, as the production of EU fiction films has remained stable?
87% of EU screens converted to digital
According to figures provided by MEDIA Salles a total of 4 390 screens were converted to digital projection systems in 2013, bringing the total to 26 035 digital screens. This means that by the end of 2013 about 87% of the EU’s total screen base has been digitised. A total of ten EU Member States including France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland or Denmark have converted practically all their screens. Digital screen penetration in Germany reached 90% compared to 75% in Italy and 70% in Spain. Only seven Member States registered digital screen penetration rates below 70%, including the Czech Republic (51%), Slovenia (45%) and Greece (27%).
More detailed information on European as well as international theatrical markets can be found inFOCUS 2014 World Film Market Trends (on sale during the Marché du Film) 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 2013 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 3 and 4)
The pan-European film rankings shown in tables 3 and 4 are drawn up using information stored in the LUMIERE database as of 20th April 2014. 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 2013 data for 23 European countries is now available, including data for the major European Union markets, as well as data for the North American market. The rankings (Tables 3 and 4) shown in this press release are based on data from all European Union countries for which results have been received.
Market shares (Table 5)
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 2013 shown in table 5 are based on the data on admissions to individual films as collected in the LUMIERE database on 20th April 2014. At this date the coverage rate of the database for admissions in the 23 European Union countries for which data is available was of around 88%. Due to various gaps in data collection and delivery in various countries, coverage of 100% of admissions is currently unachievable. For 2013, LUMIERE has still to include additional data on several EU countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands and Spain.
Number of feature films produced in the European Union (Table 6)
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.