11/12/2002

The countries that make up the EU produced around 625 films in 2001. But their distribution in Europe was limited. Today only British films sell well in Europe. British films also manage bigger box office takes in Europe (42 million tickets sold in 2001) with respect to their performance at home (18 million).
German films were seen by over 25 million of compatriots against just 7 million spectators in the rest of Europe and French films rejoiced in a domestic audience of 73 million compared to 21 abroad. Italian features were the choice of 12.5 million nationals against 3.5 million Europewide. This data, made public by André Lange, a consultant with the European Audiovisual Observatory, shows that with the sole exception of Brit films, the distribution of European titles is driven by one or at most, two key titles. For example, Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni , Hable con Ella by Pedro Almodovar and Amélie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. During those years when similar features are not release, statistics drop quite dramatically.
The more deep-seated reasons for the ambiguity in the distribution field are mainly economic. An analysis of European cinema’s 50 most important companies (production, distribution and exhibition) revealed a clear fall in their profits for the period between 1997 and 2000. Despite an increase in attendance (+21 per cent) and a doubling of revenues (Euros 17 billion), profits dropped while debts grew. Profits in 1997 stood at 4 per cent, in 2000 that was down to 0 per cent.
The first victim of this was exhibition where profits in Europe dropped from 9 per cent in 1998 to under 5 per cent in 2000, in particular as a result of the crisis of German exhibitors: in October 2002 the closure of Europe’s seventh UFA-Theater GmbH, the problems experienced by Cinemaxx with all its major investments in multiscreen theatres and the losses announced by Kinepolis in central Europe.
Distribution is, without a doubt, in better health (profits of 3 per cent in 2000) and home video are the film industry’s most competitive sectors. All the same distribution is subject to the will of the American studios who have total or partial control of 30 of Europe’s top 50 companies.