Box office revenue in Europe slipped just 1% last year to €6.6 billion ($6.86 billion), far less than in Germany, which saw a drop of 6.5% to €868.4 million due to a lack of blockbusters and major sport events competing for audiences.
Cinema attendance held firm across the continent as admissions slid only 2% to to 841 million due to the success of local productions in many markets, according to preliminary figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory published on Thursday.
The combined 27 member states that make up the European Union saw a 2% decline in box office to €5 billion as admissions fell 3% to 640 million.
Germany fared worse, however, with a 5.8% drop in admissions to 90.1 million compared to 2023, the German Federal Film Board (FFA) reported on Wednesday.
With figures stabilizing near 2023 levels, cinema attendance in Europe “appears to have settled at around 24% below pre-pandemic levels (2017–2019), suggesting that the post-pandemic rebound has run its course and that the market may have reached a new equilibrium,” the European Audiovisual Observatory stated.
“In 2024, the European theatrical sector continued to feel the impact of strikes in the North American film industry, which disrupted production and delayed releases, weighing on box office results,” it added.
On the bright side, domestic productions saw remarkable success in several European markets, making up for the shortfall in Hollywood titles.
The Hollywood strikes also took their toll on the German box office in particular, which was already hit hard by other major events, said FFA CEO Peter Dinges.
“It was actually clear to everyone that the cinema results in 2024 would be weaker than in 2023,” Dinges explained. “We not only had to deal with a European football championship in our own country and the Olympic Games, but also with the consequences of the Hollywood strikes. Numerous potential blockbusters such as ‘Avatar 3’ were dropped from the release schedules. Such films, which are expected to attract more than 5 million admissions, were largely missing. Against this background, the 5.8% drop in tickets sold is moderate. So we can look back on the year with satisfaction.”
Germany also suffered a drop of 3.7 percentage in its market share of domestic titles to 20.6% compared to 2023 despite a few strong hits.
“We had great, successful German films like ‘Chantal in Fairytale Land,’ ‘A Million Minutes’ and, above all, ‘The School of Magical Animals 3,’” Dinges pointed out.
Offering an upbeat forecast, he added that a number of blockbusters are expected in 2025, among them “A Minecraft Movie,” “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and highly anticipated German titles like “Manitu’s Canoe” and “The Physician II.”
Among the standout local films that reached the top of the charts in other European countries were “A Little Something Extra,” the most successful film in France in 2024 with over 10 million admissions; “Gundi: Legend of Love,” the all-time highest-grossing film in Bulgaria; and “Stormskerry Maja,” the top-grossing film in Finland post-pandemic.
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