Europeans Still Like Cinema

Last week the European Audiovisual Observatory released a report that summarises cinema attendance across Europe for the first half of 2009.

With an estimated 348 million tickets sold between January and June 2009, cinema admissions in the big 5 European Union markets increased by 3.8% year-on-year. Cumulative growth was primarily driven by an impressive 14.5% rise in the UK, representing the strongest result in seven years, as well as increasing cinema attendance in Germany (+6.5%) and in Spain (+7.9%). Among the most successful films during the first six months of 2009 was Angels and Demons making it into the top 10 in all five major markets and topping the charts in Germany, Italy and Spain. Other films appearing in multiple top 10s included Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as well as Gran Torino and Fast & Furious. The 4.4% year-on-year decline France is due to the exceptional success of Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis in the first half of 2008, though strong results in July and August may reverse the full year trend.

The European Audiovisual Observatory estimates that the cumulative results for France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain account for about 76% of total admissions in the European Union. The development of these five markets generally serves as good indicator for the overall European trend. The growth in the big 5 markets as well as strong half-year results in many other European countries such as Sweden (+27%), Poland (+16%), the Netherlands (+12.3%), Norway (+8.1%), Denmark (+7%), the Czech Republic (+6.8%), Hungary (+6.2%), Ireland (+1.8%) or Portugal (+1.3%), suggest that despite the difficult economic environment cinema admissions across Europe increased in the first six months of 2009.