France still leads Europe in cinema attendance but ticket sales slide in 2007
February 12, 2008
The US box office is not alone in taking hits to its theater attendance. In a report released on February 11, movie theater attendance in France and the European Union dipped 2.2% last year, with 910 million total tickets sold, compared with 931 million in 2006.
Admissions were higher than the 899 million recorded in 2005, but down sharply from 2004, which was a very good year for movies in France and in Europe, with total of 1 billion viewers, according to data released by l’Observatoire European de l’audiovisuel (the European Audiovisual Observatory).
Movie ticket sales suffered malaise in France, where they were down 5.6%. However, France, a pioneer of the industry since the early days of cinema, still leads the rest of Europe in movie attendance, bringing 178 million viewers into its theatres. And the 2007 decline in film attendance France was not as steep as that reported for other European countries.
Among the other major territories whose movie admissions slumped in 2007 were Germany (down 8.2%) and Spain (down 7.7%) Some new EU states also took hits in movie attendance, such as Hungary (down 13.8%) and Slovakia (down 19.9%).
However, other territories mitigated the overall average. For example, Italy saw its admissions rise 12.3%, the biggest growth in 20 years, and in the U.K., admissions were up 3.7%. A few new EU countries also saw a boost in attendance, most spectacularly in Lithuania, where admissions shot up 34% from 2.4 million to 3.2 million.
While overall ticket sales shrunk in 2007, domestic production performed well in many of the markets. However, France, long admired both at home and abroad for its films, was left out of this love-fest with local movies. Market share for French-produced movies dropped 8.1 % in France in 2007. Local films also tanked in Germany (down 6.9%), Hungary (down 5.8%). All of these countries saw overall admissions declines.
Other countries in Europe fared better. Compared with 2006, market share for local films grew in 11 of the 17 EU countries for which data is available. Local fare performed especially well in the U.K., Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland in 2007, where market share for local films climbed 8%, 7.2%, 5.1% and 8.8%, respectively. All four territories saw overall admissions rise, and observers say that local films’ popularity was largely responsible for this.
Just outside the European Union, results were mixed. The Russian market grew 16 % (107 million admissions). But attendance was down in Norway (-10.4%), Switzerland(-12.5%) and Turkey (-10.7%).
In a separate study, Belgian cinema operator Kinepolis reported last month that ticket sales at its theaters fell 3.4 percent in 2007 because of a warm spring and fewer international blockbusters.
Visitor numbers to Kinepolis theaters across Europe dropped to 22 million last year as sunny spring weather and what it called a less attractive range of films until May failed to draw customers.
The company reported that November turned out much worse than expected, notably in France, citing a lack of obvious blockbusters in December.
Kinepolis, which operates cinemas in Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland, said in November that ticket sales in the first 10 months of last year were down 1.9 % and that in the disastrous last quarter of 2007, visitor numbers dropped 7.7 %. Ticket sales in French-speaking Belgium and France were well below year-ago levels when popular movies such as “Casino Royale” and “Happy Feet” came out.
However, the company expressed some optimism about the next few months of 2008 in France and its other markets, citing the release of “Asterix and Obelix”, “10,000 BC”, “Indiana Jones 4″, “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “The Mummy 3″, the next Bond movie and the sixth installment of Harry Potter. However, it should be noted that only one of these films is produced in France, or indeed, anywhere in Europe.
According to a global survey of consumers in France and two other European cities as well as in the US, the global decline in movie theater attendance is not a result of unappealing content, as is often assumed, but rather reflects a dissatisfaction with the movie-going experience and increasing competition for the consumer’s share of time and money. The survey, conducted by PA Consulting Group and the Motion Picture Association of America, also revealed that while consumer-spending habits will not undergo any fundamental changes over the next five years, movie attendance and home entertainment sales, including the sales of DVDs, will decline as entertainment options increase.
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