Hollywood helps push Europe box office to all-time high

LOS ANGELES — Thanks to blockbusters such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, animated feature Minions, the James Bond flick Spectre and dino romp Jurassic World, the €opean Union’s (EU) box office hit an all-time high of €7.3 billion (S$11.4 billion) in 2015, a robust 16 per cent up on 2014, per an advance of a €opean Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) report, Focus 2016: World Film Market Trends.

Ticket sales climbed 7.4 per cent versus 2014’s figures, repping the second highest level in the EU in the last 10 years, only bested by 2009, the year of Avatar.

In what the EAO calls “the most homogenous growth trend observed across territories in past 10 years”, all 28 member states without exception of the EU registered at uptick in gross box office. Increases were sometimes dramatic: Box office shot up by 30 per cent and more than €400 million in the United Kingdom and Ireland compared to 2014; and by 19 per cent and €187 million in Germany — to an all-time national record of €1.167 billion.

Last year was the year this decade when Hollywood unequivocally reigned in Europe. Eighteen of the top 20 highest-grossing movies in the EU last year were made by US studios. US-EU market share was 64 per cent, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Minions, Spectre and Jurassic World all punching more than 30 million in ticket sales each, something not one single title achieved in 2014 or 2013, the EAO study noted.

Faced with such competition, European market share in the EU inevitably dropped from 2014’s 33.5 per cent — the best level on record — to an estimated 26.1 per cent (excluding titles with incoming Hollywood studio investment such as Spectre), with only the Luc Besson-produced action thriller Taken 3 (€8.9 million) starring Liam Neeson; and Constantin Films’ F...You Gohte 2 (€8.6 million) hitting the EU’s top 20.

Taking in such UK studio-backed titles as Spectre and Kingsman: The Secret Service, European market share came in at 33.4 per cent, just down from 2014’s 33.9 per cent, a poor year for the release of big Hollywood shoots in London.

The lowest in five years, though just by a tad, the European films’ market share in the EU is still high enough to justify Hollywood studio and now indie investment — think Lionsgate’s just-announced Globalgate Ent.

EU production volumes continued to climb, to 1,643 movies. Stalling for much of the decade, European international co-productions powered up in 2015 to account for 24 per cent of all films produced. Whether that is a sign of vitality or producers needing to turn to partners to make movies is another question.

An annual report which has grown into a major industry reference, this year’s EAO World Film Market Trends will be published in its entirety on May 12 at the Cannes Festival. REUTERS