Ahead of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) published some comprehensive figures about Europe’s 2023 box office results and production volumes.

Last year, Europe’s gross box office (including all the Council of Europe member states except Azerbaijan) recorded €6.7 billion, with cinema attendance reaching 861 million tickets sold.

These figures marked a 22.3% growth in comparison with 2022 figures – from €5.5 billion to €6.7 billion, still down 12% on pre-pandemic levels. The Observatory suggests that inflation and rising ticket prices contributed to better box office revenues.

Unsurprisingly, American blockbusters maintained their dominance, once again monopolising the entire year-end top 20.

Barbie (USA/UK), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (USA/Japan), and Oppenheimer [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (USA/UK) topped the European box office year-end chart. Guillaume Canet’s Astérix & Obélix: The Middle Kingdom [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] (France) shone as the most successful European film of the year, followed by Paola Cortellesi’s post-war feminist drama There Is Still Tomorrow [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film]. 

Moreover, European films accounted for more than a quarter of tickets sold (26.4%), whilst the market share of American titles achieved a new high of 70.1%. Cinema attendance in wider Europe grew by 18.3%, selling 133 million tickets more than in 2022. 

Meanwhile, admissions in the European Union and UK saw slightly stronger growth, increasing by 19.6% to 784 million. In the region, admission levels remained 20.1% lower than pre-pandemic averages of 982 million tickets.

Despite these positive trends at a macro level, the variance in growth across individual countries remains noteworthy. In 2023, Ukraine (+60.1%), Italy (+59.2%), and Albania (+42.0%) saw the most substantial increases in cinema attendance. Conversely, the Czech Republic (-1.2%), Denmark (-1.9%), and Turkey (-12.9%) were the only countries witnessing a decline. 

Notably, Georgia and Bosnia & Herzegovina outpaced pre-pandemic attendance levels, boasting recovery rates of 117% and 113%, respectively. 

Out of the 13,796 feature films screened in cinemas across Europe in 2023, 14 titles managed to exceed 10 million tickets sold, while 113 (including 39 European productions) achieved over 1 million admissions.

National box office hits helped increase national market shares in 17 countries, while the share of European productions declined to 26.4%.

In 2023, American films achieved an important market share in terms of admissions, exceeding the 70% milestone for the first time in recent years and marking a notable 7.4% increase from 2022. This remarkable performance by American titles came at the expense of European films and incoming European productions, which experienced respective declines of 3.9% and 3.3%. Consequently, European films' market share sank to 26.4%, reaching its lowest point in recent history. 

European incoming productions also hit a new low recording a 0.9% market share, attributed to the absence of successful studio-backed European releases in 2023, such as those seen in previous years from popular franchises like Harry Potter and James Bond.

Regarding the diversity of offerings, European films maintained a dominant position, constituting over 66% of the total titles available in European cinemas throughout 2023. Meanwhile, American films comprised 19.7% of the offering, with productions from the rest of the world making up 13.2% of the available content.

Overall, film production in Europe remained stable, in line with 2022 and pre-pandemic levels.

European feature film production continued its upward trend for the third consecutive year, resulting in 2,347 titles in 2023, marking the second-highest figure after the peak reached in 2019 and an increase of 12 titles compared to 2022. Within this total, fiction films reached a new peak of 1,460 productions, aligning closely with the production levels seen in 2022 (1,456 titles) and 2019 (1,445 titles). Documentary production also saw a slight uptick, totalling 887 titles and accounting for 37.8% of the total output.

Italy once again topped the charts in terms of production volume in 2023, achieving a new record of 354 feature films. Spain and France followed, securing the second and third positions with 306 and 236 titles, respectively.

Finally, the available figures suggest that only four countries still have a production volume below 30% compared to pre-pandemic times – Romania (32 titles, -30.4% compared to 2017-2019 figures), Belgium (29 titles, -34.1%), Slovenia (12 titles, -35.7%) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (4 titles, -40%).