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Half of all European films make it to VOD but US films still dominate in Europe

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- The European Audiovisual Observatory releases the report "How do films circulate on VOD and in cinemas in the European Union?"

Half of all European films make it to VOD but US films still dominate in Europe

The European Audiovisual Observatory has just released its latest European film circulation figures for the cinema and VOD industries in the form of a brand new report: How do films circulate on VOD and in cinemas in the European Union, freely downloadable here. Analyst Christian Grece has also given some insights on the report to Cineuropa — read them here.

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Two of the themes examined by this report are:

  1. The number of theatrical release films making it to VoD.

For the 16,829 films theatrically released in the EU and produced between 2005 and 2014, 8,759 (52%) were available on at least one of the 75 VOD services. When looking at their region of origin, significant differences appear:

  • 47% of EU films released between 2005 and 2014 in EU cinemas were available on at least one VOD service (5,046 films out of 10,828).
  • 87% of US films released between 2005 and 2014 in EU cinemas were available on at least one VOD service (2,404 films out of 2,748).
  • 41% of international films (non EU, non US) released between 2005 and 2014 in EU cinemas were available on at least one VOD service (1,034 films out of 2,506).
  • 37% of other European films (non EU – broader Europe) released between 2005 and 2014 in EU cinemas were available on at least one VOD service (275 films out of 747). 

The report takes a closer look at the circulation of films in countries of the European Union, on VOD services and in cinemas. It is a follow-up report to the report Origin of films in VOD catalogues in the EU, completed by LUMIERE data on films in EU cinemas. 

       2. How does circulation in cinemas and VOD compare?
  • Release markets: Only international films (non EU and non US) had a wider distribution on VOD than in cinemas, on average in two more countries. All other films have a wider distribution in cinemas than on VOD services, although by a short margin (less than one country).
  • Release clusters for cinemas and VOD: Data on EU and other European films shows a certain relation between the number of theatrical release markets and the number of VOD release markets. For US and international films, the data suggests that no strong link exists. EU films’ later availability on VOD in a given country therefore appears to be influenced by their previous theatrical release.
  • The impact of film genres and theatrical admissions on theatrical release markets and VOD country availability are furthermore explored in the report in section 4.

Notes on the methodology of this report.

This report takes a closer look at the circulation of films in countries of the European Union, on VOD services and in cinemas. It is a follow-up report to the report Origin of films in VOD catalogues in the EU, completed by LUMIERE data on films in EU cinemas.

The four objectives of this follow-up report are:

  • to explore the underlying facts of the gap between the cumulative catalogues offering and the film pool of EU films on VOD services by taking a closer look at film availability on a country level (Section 1)
  • to compare the results with the circulation of films in cinemas in EU countries and to highlight similarities or differences (Section 2)
  • to show how many films produced and released in EU cinemas in the period 2005 to 2014 were available on VOD services on a country level (Section 3)
  • to highlight differences between the circulation of films in cinemas and on VOD for films produced between 2005 and 2014 by comparing the performance of films released in EU cinemas that were available on at least one VOD service and by highlighting the impact of film genre and theatrical admissions on the country availability on VOD services for films (Section 4)

The data on VOD encompasses 75 transactional VOD services and their film catalogues in the 28 EU countries; the data on films in cinemas includes all films on release and produced between 2005 and 2014 in the EU.

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