EU Box Office Hits Record HighEU Box Office Hits Record High

U.S. films such as Star Wars and Minions help drive ticket sales.

The cumulative gross box office numbers in the 28 EU countries has soared to approximately €7.3 billion, 16 percent higher than the previous year, according to provisional data from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

The GBO growth was driven by an increase in admissions as well as rising ticket prices–admissions increased by 7.4 percent to 976 million tickets sold. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, this is 67.5 million more than in 2014 and represents the second highest level registered in the EU over the past 10 years.

The EU gross box office was also boosted by the strong year-on-year performances in the U.K. and Ireland, which registered an increase of almost €400 million, as well as Germany with an increase of more than €187 million.

Furthermore, in contrast to 2014, admissions growth was driven primarily by strong performance numbers for a number of U.S. studio titles–which accounted for 18 out of the top 20 performing films in the EU in 2015. Films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens (39.8 million admissions) Minions (39.5 million), Spectre (37.9 million) and Jurassic World (30.4 million) topped the charts. And, on a cumulative basis, U.S. films took an estimated market share of 64 percent, slightly up from 2014’s 63.2 percent.

Despite the success of U.S. films in the region, admissions for European films declined as only two films made it into the top 20–the French action thriller Taken 3 (8.9 million admissions) and the German comedy Fack ju Göhte (8.6 million).

However, European movies continued to perform well in several national markets including France (35.2 percent), Finland (29.9 percent), Denmark (29.8 percent) and Germany (27.5 percent). But, boosted by the success of U.K. qualifying films such as Star Wars or Spectre, U.K. films captured a record market share of 44.5 percent, making the U.K. the EU market with highest national market share last year.