15/10/2012 - The European Audiovisual Observatory has published a new report on the theatrical export of European films. It shows recession

In its recent report on the theatrical export of European films, the European Audiovisual Observatory analyses the success of European films in 10 large non-European markets: US/Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Venezuela. The data, compared to statistics compiled by the observatory for the 27 European territories, bares witness to a relatively important recession.

En 2010, 1,281 European films were exclusively released in cinemas in at least one of the EU markets or one of the 10 non-European markets covered by the report. Over 90% of these films were released in Europe and barely 103 of them (8 %) were screened in cinemas outside Europe.

In the 37 (27 + 10) markets covered in the sample, over 378 million tickets were sold for European films, of which more or less 70.4 million were sold outside Europe. In other words, roughly 19% of European film admissions were generated outside Europe. In 2009, European films had sold almost 84 million tickets in the same 10 non-European markets. From one year to the next, admissions for European films outside Europe thus dropped by 16%.

Globally, the report notes that European films generated at least 16% of their box office receipts outside Europe during the year 201o.

The report takes a close look at the volume of European films in the EU and 10 non-EU countries of the sample. It stresses the importance of the American market for European films. In 2010, the latter accounted for 62% of gross box office receipts in non-European countries.

Quantitatively, the report reveals that in 2010 the largest number of European films released outside the EU were French (150 films released outside Europe, or 33% of all European films released in the 10 countries of the studied sample). However, for all admissions, it’s the United Kingdom that occupies the first place with a grand total 25 million tickets sold in the 10 countries, or 36% of admissions for European films in the 10 countries of the sample in 2010.

As for the market share for European films, the figures show a stark contrast between total admissions for European films in the EU (26% in 2010) and in the 10 countries of the non-EU sample where the European films only represented 3% of total admissions generated for all the films released in cinemas.

While this report does highlight a certain trend and can act as a warning, it’s important not to draw any hasty conclusions from it in view of the seasonal effects in the film industry. The data goes back to 2010 and cinema-going habits have drastically changed over the last two years in Europe and around the world. The observatory hopes that is will be possible to publish this complex study every year in order to provide analysis and structural data for a longer and more recent period. It also raises the issue of results from other forms of exhibition consolidating these box office admissions — despite their being absent from both this report and stated intentions for future studies — to finally obtain an index of economic popularity for European films to correspond to the reality of practical film consumption worldwide.

(Translated from French)