European films reach their highest market share, driving growth at the EU box office
- The European Audiovisual Observatory has unveiled provisional data on 2014 film-market trends
The European Audiovisual Observatory has unveiled provisional data on 2014 film-market trends.
The figures show a rise of 0.6% (€40 million) in gross box-office (GBO) takings in the 28 EU member states compared to 2013.
This growth was due to an increase in admissions - 911 million tickets were sold, around 6.5 million more than in 2013 - and is thus not to be attributed to an increase in ticket prices, which have on average remained stable since 2012.
GBO figures increased in 14 member states and decreased in 13 (from among the 27 states where data are available). Analysed on an individual basis, France, Spain and Poland were the countries that attained the highest figures, with +€15 million, while Italy and Germany fell by €46 million and €43 million, respectively, representing the biggest declines.
Nevertheless, despite the improvement, GBO for 2014 still represented the second-lowest level from the past five years.
What is remarkable is that this growth in cinema attendance in the EU was driven primarily by the success of European films, whose cumulative admissions grew in line with the trend during 2013, while US blockbuster attendance decreased significantly compared to previous years, causing the market share for US films to drop from its record level of 69.5% in 2013 to 63.1%.
On the contrary, the estimated market share for European films in the EU reached its highest level since 1996, when the Observatory started collecting data, jumping from 26.2% to 33.4%.
Another record is represented by the estimated growth in the number of European feature-film productions, which reached 1,603 films in 2014 (32% co-productions and 68% national productions), thus continuing the steady growth of the past decades.
One more aspect analysed by the Observatory was the digitalisation of screens. According to figures provided by MEDIA Salles, in 2014, 92% of the EU’s screens were digital, with the conversion of 1,858 additional EU screens to digital projection systems throughout the year.
For a more detailed insight into the 2014 film-market trends, click here.
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