European Observatory: admissions drop, domestic films fare well
In 2005, the passion for the silver screen among the citizens of the EU dropped sharply, says a study by the European Audiovisual Observatory presented at the European Film Market (EFM) of the 56th Berlin Film Festival.
According to data from the institute in Strasbourg, which has been monitoring the audiovisual market in 36 European countries since 1992, in 2005 the residents of the 25 EU countries deserted cinemas, thus causing an average decrease of 11% with respect to the previous year. 2005 saw approximately 900m admissions, as opposed to 1.7bn in 2004. Further comparing this with data from 2003 (955m admissions), the average decreased 6%.
The Observatory examined the situation in 11 sample countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, the UK, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovakia. The data between the countries varies greatly: the nations that registered the most significant decrease between 2004 and 2005 are Slovakia (-24%), the Czech Republic (-21%), Germany (-18%) and Spain (-12.5%). The crisis is less evident among UK and Irish audiences, with a decrease of 3.8% and 5%, respectively.
According to Observatory analysts, a 7.5% drop was recorded in Italy, with a little over 107m admissions compared to 116m in 2004. The decrease is more contained with respect to 2003: 2.5%.
The only EU country that was spared the negative trend with respect to 2003-4 was France. In 2005, the French went less often to cinemas (175m admissions) with respect to 2004 (approximately 195m), yet in 2003 admissions topped off at 173.5m. From 2003-2005, France thus recorded an increase of 1.3%. Only one non-EU country fared better than France: Turkey, which recorded an increase of over 13% in just two years.
The most encouraging data regards the local film industries of the various European countries, which managed to compete with US blockbusters. According to the Observatory, despite the general decrease, the market share of individual domestic films grew in almost all of Europe.
The most significant increases were recorded in the UK, where the share of local films reached 34% (+10% with respect to 2004), and in Denmark, where the growth was above 9%. Italy and the Netherlands saw increases of approximately 4% (Italy went from 20.5% in 2004 to 24.8% in 2005). Other countries fared worse, for example, France and Germany, which recorded drops of 1.7% and 6.7%, respectively.
(Translated from Italian)
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