Cinema admissions in Europe: -2% in 2012

In movie theatres in the 35 countries surveyed by MEDIA Salles, from Iceland to Russia, from Portugal to Turkey, admissions in 2012 amounted to 1,190.5 million spectators, with a drop of 2% compared to the 1,214.3 million of 2011.
In particular, the 19 countries in Western Europe, dropping from 905.0 million in 2011 to 881.6 in 2012, record a slightly higher decrease than the average for the Continent, a drop of -2.6%.
Instead, admissions in the 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Rim remain more or less stable, totalling 308.9 million spectators in 2012, as against the 309.3 of the previous year (-0.1%).

The six leading markets
If the average dip in Europe as a whole stands at -2%, individual countries reveal differing trends, as emerges clearly from an analysis of the six leading markets, which account for 73.4% of European spectators.
2012 closes negatively for France (-5.9%), who does, however remain above the 200 million-spectator mark and confirms her position as the leading European market in terms of tickets sold.
More marked decreases are to be seen in Italy - where the initial estimates regarding screens in operation for at least 60 days a year are a little under 99 million spectators (-10.2%) - and in Spain, where almost 7 million spectators are lost compared to 2011 (-7%), confirming a negative downward turn lasting several years now.
A very slight dip is recorded in Russia (CIS, not including Ukraine), which shifts from 173.2 million admissions in 2011 to around 171.6 million in 2012, with a drop of -0.9%. An opposite trend on the large Western European markets is to be found in Germany who, with 135.1 million spectators compared to the 129.6 of 2011, records a +4.2% increase and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom - the Continent’s second largest market - which totals 172.5 million tickets in 2012 as against the 171.6 of the previous year (+0.5%).