EU: Co-productions do better and earn more admissions than national films

The European Audiovisual Observatory has just published a special report on European co-productions for presentation at the Council of Europe Film Policy Forum which takes place in Krakow from 11 to 13 September 2008.  This is probably one of the most comprehensive analyses of co-production performance ever attempted on a European level.

The data sample comprises more than 5 400 films with theatrical release between 2001 and 2007 in 20 selected European markets.
 
This study analyses the circulation and performance of European co-productions both inside and outside their national markets and compares their performance to that of entirely national films. The report draws chiefly on data stored in the European Audiovisual Observatory's LUMIERE database of admissions to films (http://lumiere.obs.coe.int).

It compares circulation in terms of the average number of release markets for each of the two types of films as well as in terms of the percentage of films that get released on at least one non-national market. Performance is measured by comparing the respective average admissions for each type of film.

Conclusions

Three key conclusions can be drawn from the data studied:

1. European co-productions travel better than their 100% national counterparts to the extent that, on average, co-productions get released in more than twice as many markets as national films. 77% of all co-productions get released on at least one non-national market, compared to 33% for entirely national films.
2. European co-productions earn on average 2.7 times as many admissions as their national peers.
3. In terms of admissions, non-national markets are more important for co-productions than for entirely national films. Non-national admissions account for 41% of total admissions to co-productions compared to 15% for entirely national films.

This new report can be downloaded free of charge here: http://www.obs.coe.int/online_publication/expert/krakow_report.pdf