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European film industry box office grows despite the economic crisis

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- European film industry records impressive increase in box office and cinema admissions; Local films are also performing well, with 11 titles in EU countries’ top 5

2015 was a record year for European cinema operators, according to a report issued by the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC). Where there was data available, it is estimated that admissions in European countries has increased by 7.6% compared to 2014, while total admissions have increased by 6%, accounting for more than 1.2 billion visits to the cinema. This data includes all EU countries, plus Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, and Turkey.

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Overall, US and UK productions dominated the list of top 5 grossing films in Europe with titles such as Minions, SPECTRE [+see also:
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, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Local films performed very well in Poland (with Letters to Santa 2 [+see also:
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in first place), Spain (first place for Spanish Affair 2 [+see also:
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), Norway (top grossing film The Wave [+see also:
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), Finland (second place for The Reunion [+see also:
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 and fifth for Lapland Odyssey 2 [+see also:
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), Germany (second place for Suck me Shakespeer 2 [+see also:
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), Lithuania (second place for Unexperienced [+see also:
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), Denmark (third place for Klown Forever [+see also:
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), Portugal (third place for The Courtyard of the Ballads [+see also:
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), Estonia (fourth place for 1944 [+see also:
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), Greece (fourth place for Worlds Apart [+see also:
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) and in the UK, with SPECTRE and Star Wars: The Force Awakens coming out on top.

Albania, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Portugal, Romania and the UK have marked an impressive box office growth of more than 15% compared to 2014, while admissions increased more than 15% per cent in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Portugal, and Romania. Poland has now become one of the leading European cinema markets, with more than 40 million admissions in 2015, with an increase of 10.6% from 2014. Macedonia, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland, and Greece also posted positive results. Only Slovenia (-5.3% in box office performance in comparison to 2014, and -11.3% in admissions), Turkey (-1.4% in admissions) and in France (-1.3% in admissions) recorded negative results, although the latter's is surely a consequence of the remarkable success of French films in 2014, which was difficult to repeat in 2015.

However, the data for certain territories are based only on initial estimates and the report represents the first wide-ranging assessment of the performance of the European cinema sector last year. More detailed final data on the performance of each territory will be released by UNIC this Spring.

 

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