EU cinema admissions near 1bn tickets
Written by Chris Forrester
Sunday, 14 February 2010 11:08
The latest numbers are out on last year’s cinema admissions in Europe.
The European Audiovisual Observatory has released its first estimates for European cinema attendance in 2009. The Observatory estimates that total admissions in the European Union increased to about 985 million tickets sold. In a difficult economic environment this represents impressive 6.5% growth year-on-year and the highest admissions level since the record-breaking result in 2004.
Exhibitors are looking forward to 2010’s numbers which will be helped by Avatar which opened in the UK on Dec 18 and is still selling well.
Admissions increased in 18 out of the 24 EU member states for which data were available. In absolute terms Germany registered the most significant growth (+16.9 million, +13.1%), followed by France (+10.9 million, +5.7%), the United Kingdom (+9.3 million, +5.6%) and Poland (+5.4 million, +16.1%). For the first time in the past five years Spain reported an increase in admissions (+2.8%), whereas attendance decreased marginally in Italy (-0.4%).
Though the Observatory does not yet have enough data to estimate the overall GBO for 2009, data already available show box office growth significantly outpacing growth in attendance in basically all countries. The increasing number of 3D blockbusters like Ice Age 3 or Avatar selling tickets at premium prices is likely to have been a major contributing factor in this development.
Outside of the EU, the Russian Federation continued its growth trend of the past years with admissions growing by 11.8% to reach 138.5 million tickets sold, holding its position as the fourth-largest cinema market in Europe in terms of cinema attendance. With the Russian rouble losing around 20% of its value against the US dollar in 2009, GBO reported in US dollars dropped from US$830 million in 2008 to US$736 million last year. Measured in local currency GBO increased by an estimated 10.4%.
© Rapid TV News 2010
