What They Say
The European Audiovisual Observatory said that cinema attendance in the EU + UK dropped by 70.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. Taking into account other European territories outside the EU and the UK, admissions plunged by 68.7% in 2020, falling from 1.4 billion to 411.9 million.
This staggering decline is clearly the result of the COVID-19 crisis, as the prolonged closure of cinemas across Europe, coupled with other restrictive measures, took a heavy toll on the exhibition sector. The massive crash came after a very positive 2019, when cinema attendance in the EU and UK had crossed the barrier of 1 billion admissions for the first time since 2004.
The first available figures suggest that in this exceptional year the shortage of US blockbusters led to an increase in national market share in the majority of European markets compared to 2019. In the EU, Italy recorded the highest national market share with domestic films capturing 55.6% of admissions. Ranking second was Denmark, with a national market share of 50.0%, ahead of the Czech Republic (48.3%) and France (44.9%). Other EU markets with a significant increase in the national market shares include Finland (41.1%), the Slovak Republic (32.8%), Spain (28.8%) and Greece (28.2%).
Outside the EU, Turkey confirmed its leading position in terms of national market share with Turkish films generating 80.0% of admissions in 2020. Russia also saw its national market share increase from 23.1% to 47.9%. Conversely in the UK the national market share (including US studio-backed films) dropped from 48.0% to 44.0%.
What We Think
There is a full table of data at the linked page. This result is really not a surprise, but it is worth having good data to back up the market development.(BR)
