With blockblusters like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” breaking records across Europe, global box office receipts jumped 27% in the first three months of the year, a new report by the International Union of Cinemas said.
Those draws will likely help global box office receipts grow 23% to top $32 billion in 2023, said the report, released Tuesday during the CineEurope exhibition conference in Barcelona. The report noted that 2022 was a rebound year for the European theater industry.
“After two disrupted years, 2022 marked a step-change in the recovery of the European cinema industry, sending a clear signal of the desire of audiences to return to the big screen when presented with a strong and diverse film offer and allowing cinemas to re-affirm their cultural and social significance within local communities,” said Phil Clapp, CEO of the UK Cinema Association and President of the International Union of Cinemas.
Admissions increased nearly 63% last year, with nearly 821 million tickets sold across the 43,000 screens across 39 territories, the International Union of Cinemas represents. Box office receipts topped $6.99 billion, a 53.5% leap from 2021, despite disruptions from inflation, the war in Ukraine and the still limited supply of films. In the EU and U.K., box office revenue leaped 68.5% to just over $6 billion.
For the first three months of the year, Europe, the Middle East and Africa saw a 32% jump during the first quarter of this year. It was best quarter since the start of the pandemic in the EMEA region, the report said.
China saw a larger increase in the first quarter of 2023, to $6.8 billion from $5.6 billion, also a stronger-
than-expected recovery, including a very good Chinese New Year period, the report said.
The numbers are still far short of pre-pandemic attendance and revenue, when nearly 1,350 million tickets were sold, and reflect the fact that some markets had Covid-19 related audience restrictions, including mask wearing mandates early in 2022. Clapp said “2023 will be a pivotal year for the industry,” and pointed to data from Gower Street Analytics that found that audiences outpaced earlier projections in the first three months of the year.
Major international titles like the “Top Gun” and “Avatar” sequels drove much of the 2022 growth, but local titles also proved a strong draw, including “Triangle of Sadness,” the 2022 Cannes Palme D’Or winner, and Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast.” In France, local titles drew 41.1% of market share.
The gains came despite a lower film supply in 2022, with an average of roughly 370 new releases across the EU and UK, including 108 US productions, compared with 290 new releases in 2021 and 480 in 2019, the report said. Efforts by national cinema organizations to encourage theater attendance appear to be helping, it found.
Premium large-format screens are also drawing audiences along with boosting average ticket prices by about 4% over 2021, though they have not kept up with inflation.
The report also cited data that showed younger audiences have returned to theaters more than older age groups. Attendance by 15-24 year olds was 26% short of 2019 attendance, compared with a drop of 54.4% overall.
“With the cinema industry now on the path to full recovery, as indicated by the encouraging results of the first quarter of 2023, we are confident that it will soon reach the record-breaking levels of 2019,” the report said.