Highly successful first semester in German theatres

by B.P.

23/08/2011 - With rising admissions and near record-breaking box office figures, the report published by the FFA for the first semester of 2011 is more than positive.

Between the start of the year and the end of June, 61.5m viewers flocked to cinemas, i.e. 1.3m (2.2%) more than during the same period last year. With box office takings having increased by 2.5% to a total €452.8m, movie theatres have recorded the second best results ever achieved in a semester (after the record-breaking year 2002). This performance is largely down to the most popular hit of these first six months, a local production: Til Schweiger’s comedy Kokowääh [trailer] (almost 4.3m admissions, a performance now outstripped by the latest Harry Potter [trailer] and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides).

In the first semester, German cinema’s market share was up slightly compared to the first half of last year, increasing from 20.3% to 20.4%. A total of 12.4m viewers went to see German films, compared to 12m in the first semester of 2010.

For the first time, the FFA was able to compare the market share for 3D films: out of the 262 titles launched between January and June, 19 were 3D titles (i.e. 7.3%, compared with 3% in the first semester of 2010) which attracted 12.1m viewers (compared to 12.8m), representing 19.8% (compared to 21.7%) of total admissions.

The only negative trend recorded is the continuous decline in the number of screens. On June 30, there were 798,991 movie theatre seats nationwide, and this is the first time that the figure has dipped below the 800,000 seat threshold since 1998.

The second semester of 2011 has got off to a promising start. After Harry Potter, The Smurfs 3D and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, forthcoming releases include Detlev Buck’s Woman In Love, starring Matthias Schweighöfer; the latter’s first directorial outing, What A Man; and German 3D mega-production The Three Musketeers.

(Translated from French)