European cinemas took a $20 billion hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to estimates published Tuesday by industry trade group the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC). Enforced theater closures and COVID-19 restrictions, including capacity limits and masking requirements, meant total revenue losses of “at least” €19 billion ($20 billion) across the industry in the European Union (EU) and the U.K., the UNIC said in its annual report, released Tuesday at the start of exhibitors conference CineEurope, which runs June 20-23 in Barcelona, Spain.
After the European box office hit an all-time record high of $9.3 billion (€8.8 billion) in 2019, theatrical take dropped off a cliff in 2020, falling to $2.8 billion (€2.62 billion) in 2020. Last year saw a bounce back, of sorts, with box office jumping 42 percent year-on-year to $3.9 billion (€3.7 billion) across the EU and U.K., but that figure is still 70 percent down on pre-pandemic 2019.
A lack of content could be one of the problems. The UNIC noted that while 2019 saw an average of 480 new releases across Europe, the number of new titles dropped to 250 in 2020 and barely inched up last year, to just 270. Of those, just under half, 95, were U.S. titles, which however accounted for the bulk of ticket sales. Just five films: No Time to Die, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Dune, F9, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, sold 98 million tickets across the region, around a sixth of the total 589 million admissions recorded by the UNIC for the year. That compares to 432 million tickets sold in 2020 and 1.347 billion in 2019.
Pointing to a sharper recovery in the second half of last year, the UNIC was upbeat about the cinema industry’s prospects as COVID restrictions fall and the Hollywood studios ramp up their release schedules. They cited a recent Gower Street Analytics forecast predicting European box office will hit $8.1 billion this year, which would be a 62 percent hike on 2021 and within shouting distance of figures pre-pandemic.
