MEDIA Salles

Talk by Elisabetta Brunella
Secretary General of MEDIA Salles
at the IXth Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Cinema
Session one: The Cinema as a Vehicle of Multiculturalism
Venice, 5 September 2003

Whilst extending my thanks for this invitation to the organisers of the Conference, I should like to bring you all greetings from Jens Rykaer, President of MEDIA Salles, who is unable to attend this important appointment again this year, since it coincides with the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the European Film College, of which he is Director.
As you know, MEDIA Salles came into being almost 12 years ago - thanks to an idea which was both simple and innovatory - to record cinema-going in the theatres of 32 territories in the European continent, from Iceland to Turkey and from Estonia to Cyprus. Since then, the results of this work have been recorded each year in the European Cinema Yearbook, of which a special edition, preceded by an analysis of the circulation of European films, has been produced especially for this Venice Film Festival and, in particular, for the "informal meeting of the EU Ministers of Culture".
Some figures from this and similar studies carried out by MEDIA Salles - for example on the occasion of the conference "The Taste of Others", held from 5-6 December 2002 in Rome - will help us to provide the background for today's topic which is to see whether the cinema, in its present situation, is a vehicle of multiculturalism.
In other words, no-one challenges the fact that films can offer a window on the world, a way of discovering how others live. Whether or not this potential is translated into facts is, instead, far less certain.
One of the many ways to form an idea of how far the cinema is truly a vehicle of multiculturalism is to analyse where and to what extent films are produced and where and to what extent they are seen, in particular to what extent they manage to travel outside their country of origin.
But before we proceed to the analysis of this information, I should like to share with you the results of a sort of experiment - with no claim to scientific validity - that I have attempted, inspired by the title of this session.
The word "vehicle", so unfamiliar in the field of the cinema, made me think not so much of physics as of aeroplanes whilst, perhaps by association, the term "multiculturalism" led me to think of the huge and ever-increasing population of air travellers.
Which films are offered by the airlines to this "segment" of the world's population who move along international routes?
It is sufficient to look at a few websites to discover that during the current month of September we could travel the world seeing the same four or five films several times over: Bruce Almighty, The Matrix Reloaded, X2-S-Men United, The Italian Job, It runs in the family, What a girl wants, independently of the airline chosen.
There are very few exceptions standing out from the crowd and offering us something other than the great US productions: Qantas offers its first-class passengers a catalogue of 50 titles that include Respiro, The Magdalene Sisters, The Pianist; Air India offers Indian films that are an expression of the different languages and cultures of the sub-continent; Delta adds a couple of Bollywood films on the Paris-Bombay route and finally there is Alitalia, whose programme always includes a selection of Italian films (in August Il cuore altrove and La finestra di fronte; in September A.A.A.-Achille and Tandem).
To sum up, there is a very narrow range of choice.
But what is happening in the cinemas?
If we take as our reference point the countries analysed by MEDIA Salles, we can see that in 2002 the figures available, in some cases estimates, show that there were 967 million spectators in the 18 countries of Western Europe and 101 million in the 14 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Rim.

WESTERN EUROPE	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Var % 95/02	Var % 98/02
WESTERN EUROPE	684 092	732 773	787 205	845 542	833 850	867 123	957 717	967 055	+41.4%	+14.4%

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND MEDITERRANEAN RIM	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Var % 98/02
CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE AND MEDITERRANEAN RIM	97 597	97 431	94 485	106 183	101 086	+3.6%

TOTAL	1998	2002	Var % 98/02
TOTAL	943 139	1 068 141	+ 13,3%

Admissions (x 1000)

And although in 2002 Western Europe recorded an increase in the number of tickets sold compared to 2001, whilst the rest of the continent saw a drop in audiences of around 5%, if we look at the trend from 1998 to 2002, we see that, to varying degrees, Europe has seen an increase in audiences (943 million tickets in 1998, 1 billion, 100 million in 2002, or +13.3%).
An analysis of the market shares obtained by films according to their nationality shows that on average Europeans everywhere have seen a large number of US films, in some countries a fair number of domestic films and almost everywhere few films from neighbouring countries.

Graph 1 and Table 2:
Breakdown of Admissions in the European Union according to Origin of Film

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
US Films	71,6%	67,0%	77,5%	69,2%	73,3%	65,4%	71,2%
National films on their own market	17,1%	21,3%	14,4%	17,5%	15,7%	20,1%	19,5%
European films outside their own market	8,8%	10,7%	7,1%	11,3%	7,2%	11,0%	7,9%
Others	2,6%	1,1%	1,1%	2,0%	3,8%	3,5%	1,3%

Over the past 7 years in the European Union, between 65 and 77 spectators out of 100 have seen a film made in the USA, between 14 and 21 a film from their own country, between 7 and 11 a production by their European neighbours. No more than 4, but some years only 1, have chosen a film from the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the differences between one country and another and in individual years are quite pronounced, as emerges from the following four graphs.

Graph 2:
Market Shares according to Origin of Films in Western Europe - 2002

Graph 3:
Market Shares according to Origin of Films in Western Europe - 2001

Graph 4:
Market Shares according to Origin of Films in Central and Eastern Europe - 2002

* New releases only

Graph 5:
Market Shares according to Origin of Films in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Rim - 2002

* New releases only. TR: percentage on admissions

Focusing in particular on the graph mentioned, which shows the breakdown of admissions in the European Union according to the origin of films, a two-yearly cycle can be seen for non-domestic European films which, in 1997, 1999 and 2001, manage to cross the 10% threshold in the European Union.

This trend, marked by peaks and troughs, also appears in graph 6.

Graph 6 e Table 3:
Market Shares of European Films (excluding domestic films)

	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
F	7,8%	5,7%	10,0%	4,7%	4,4%	.8,7%	8,4%	6,2%	10,0%	7,2%	11,1%	5,6%	7,3%	8,4%
D	16,3%	5,6%	4,0%	6,2%	3,4%	6,5%	5,1%	8,9%	11,5%	6,3%	10,2%	6,2%	.	.
I	12,8%	8,4%	12,6%	14,2%	12,4%	11,0%	11,7%	12,5%	15,9%	10,8%	21,4%	11,5%	17,1%	12,9%
E	17,7%	16,1%	20,0%	13,2%	10,1%	16,9%	14,1%	11,8%	17,6%	8,5%	19,3%	7,0%	13,7%	12,8%
B	21,5%	19,3%	14,7%	19,3%	16,5%	16,2%	20,8%	10,9%	13,4%	11,9%	17,0%	10,5%	16,5%	16,3%
CH	23,0%	18,0%	19,0%	28,9%	22,3%	16,3%	24,0%	24,3%	21,0%	21,7%	20,1%	20,0%	27,3%	28,4%
DK	19,4%	6,1%	4,7%	3,4%	5,2%	6,9%	7,4%	15,3%	13,1%	9,1%	15,1%	8,1%	9,0%	7,8%
FIN	24,0%	12,5%	13,0%	25,0%	20,0%	20,0%	11,2%	15,7%	18,6%	8,5%	15,3%	9,9%	15,2%	8,0%
NL	18,2%	5,0%	3,0%	3,0%	4,9%	7,1%	7,5%	3,6%	10,5%	3,9%	14,3%	4,8%	5,4%	9,7%
S	.	.	.	5,3%	9,4%	13,2%	11,4%	11,9%	14,9%	8,7%	10,3%	6,7%	10,9%	10,9%
UK	.	.	1,9%	0,8%	1,3%	.	6,1%	.	.	2,0%	.	.	.	0,7%

The trend should be compared to the observation of another phenomenon, i.e. the concentration of admissions to European films for the 3 titles most widely seen.
This concentration can reach decidedly high levels, as appears in the following tables

Graph7 and Table 4:
Density of Admissions to top three European Titles

	Top 3 European films
	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
F	14,20%	48,80%	44,00%	52,10%	23,90%	48,50%	45,60%
E	28,70%	37,90%	26,60%	41,20%	30,00%	37,10%	50,20%
I	29,30%	50,20%	49,20%	42,50%	32,60%	33,90%	27,20%

In 2002, for example, the density reached 27.2% in Italy, 45.6% in France, 50.2% in Spain. In other words, the fortunes of so-called "non-domestic" European films seem to be linked to a few, or very few, "attractions".
If, in 1999, non-domestic European films in Spain reached the exceptional share of 19.3% (25.2 million tickets), the merit is largely due to a handful of highly successful titles, such as "La vita è bella", "Notting Hill", "Astérix et Obélix contre César".

Graph 8:
Share of Admissions according to Origin of Films: Spain

If it is true that Europeans do not, generally speaking, see many films by other Europeans, in 2002, the largest market shares by non-domestic European films were to be found in Switzerland (28.4%) - which enjoys a unique linguistic and cultural make-up, resulting in the fact that films in Italian, French and German are all perceived to some extent as "domestic" - in Belgium (16.3%), in Spain (12.8%) and in Italy (12.9%), what is more striking is the "irregularity" in the amounts (peaks in admissions - concentration on very few titles) as well as in space and time.
Let us follow the "journey" (in other words the results obtained in the various European territories) of the five European films which, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory, obtained most admissions in 2001.
Let us look at their career in 2002, as well, and, where possible, in 2003.
To elaborate this picture, which also includes tickets sold in the films' countries of origin, we have used data from the European Audiovisual Observatory (which covers 70% of the market) and from MEDIA Salles, where our sources manage to cover the whole market. As far as space is concerned, we can see that not all of these "European champions" have experienced truly international distribution.

Table 5:
Top five Films according to Admissions in Europe in 2001

	Bridget Jones' s Diary	Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie Poulain	Der Schuh des Manitu	The Others	Chocolat
A	459 413	215 879	1 948 432		205 138
B	600 054	525 941			183 125
BG	25 579				14 901
CH	451 519	578 316	340 321	5 927	324 739
CY	13 013				5 931
CZ	292 196	95 184			100 886
D	4 133 963	2 522 427	10 526 676		2 968 830
DK	381 299				77 037
EE	39 313				9 002
E	3 230 935	1 238 508		6 242 330	1 941 836
FIN	294 759	65 144			103 762
F	3 478 852	8 190 917		434 397	625 521
UK	9 723 791	1 000 107		2 646 656
GR		22 786		146 413
HU	439 977				152 003
IS	51 065	7 736		13 382	4 105
I	2 301 479			1 456 341	1 487 641
LT	61 786
L	39 000	35 057	19 550		19 850
LV	21 992				6 198
NL	1 068 431	49 886		195 038	137 036
N	577 827	113 088			86 403
PL	1 061 416	396 476			75 752
P		43 230
RU		175 972
S	789 702	185 089			291 848
SI	92 038
TR	340 162	133 519		58 484	237 478
US	13 273 363	3 025 408		17 907 734	12 478 734

Table 6:
Top five Films according to Admissions in Europe in 2001 (number of admissions in 2002)

	Bridget Jones' s Diary	Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie Poulain	Der Schuh des Manitu	The Others	Chocolat
A			35 255
B				266 249
BG
CH	3 765	92 316	340 321	123 748	1 911
CY	133	3 298		10 585
CZ				28 134
D		614 643	1 134 507	705 065
DK	1 620	147 507		56 436	293
EE		21 601		10 521
E			1 227
FIN
F	18 455	440 535		1 130 314
UK
GR
HU
IS
I	45 247	1 447 115		10 152	534
LT
L		2 343
LV				11 180
NL
N		47 088		73 949
PL				305 957
P
RU
S				186 488
SI		48 188
TR
US		2 905 826

If Amélie drew audiences in 23 European countries outside France, Der Schuh des Manitu was only released in two other countries outside Germany in 2001 - and these were German-speaking. In other words, as the following table shows, it obtained 82% of its admissions at home in 2001 and 95% in 2002. This situation may improve slightly following its distribution in Poland and in Turkey in 2003.

Table 7:
Der Schuh des Manitu (Germany - 2001)

In terms of time, we can see that European films hardly ever manage to achieve "simultaneous" international circulation.
The following figures, which show the circulation of Billy Elliott, Dancer in the Dark and Les Rivières Pourpres, point to a sort of "disharmony" in release dates.

	2000	2001	2002
A	27 982	49 745
B		249 447
BG		5 333
CH	111 999	343 497
CY		1 766
CZ		32 480
D	549 178	824 057
DK		68 665	2 049
E	250 464	1 935 227
FR	257 958	2 278 036
UK	3 893 407
GR		221 073
HU		25 252
IS		9 534
I		1 154 600	2 652
L		17 350
LV		3 664
NL	5 696	152 718
PL		71 670
P		95 757
S	13 773
SI		33 708
TR		50 943
US	3 108 219	909 101
Total year	8 218 676	8 533 623	4 701

We have seen some very fluid trends. But is there any sign of something stable?
Without doubt the leading role of French and English films. The following tables, which show the situation of European films both on the large markets such as Spain or Italy, and on smaller ones such as the Czech Republic or Hungary, indicate that, despite clear variations, French and English productions are general at the top of the classifications. Italian films tend to resemble the course of rivers in the desert which at times disappear and at others reappear, sometimes in full force.

Given this "irregularity", it would seem that we can confirm our initial statement ("Europeans do not see many films by other Europeans") but we can also locate the crucial problem, that is the lack of a constant supply of those products that would make it possible to at least maintain the rate of admissions found during "peaks" over time, and which prove that there certainly are Europeans that would like to see more films by their neighbours.

	An initiative of the EU MEDIA Programme with the support of the Italian Government Since 1992 MEDIA Salles has been promoting the European cinema and its circulation at theatrical level