China first market to cross $3bn

Delivering his annual state of the industry address at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Dodd said that China’s $3.6bn haul represented a 27% climb on 2012 and marked the first time a market outside North America had crossed $3bn. The exhibition sector in China is adding 13 theatres a day, he added.

The MPAA’s annual Theatrical Market Statistics Report for 2013 revealed that the international box office climbed 5% from 2012 to $25bn and has increased 33% over the past five years. North American generated $10.9bn.

The Asia Pacific region produced $10.9bn to overtake Europe, the Middle East and Africa and become the top international region for the first time.

The top 11 markets in 2013 according to IHS Screen Digest and local sources were China on $3.6bn, Japan on $2.4bn, the UK on $1.7bn, France on $1.6bn, India on $1.5bn, South Korea and Russia tied on $1.4bn, Germany on $1.3bn, Australia on $1.1bn and Mexico and Brazil tied on $900m.

Ranks 12-20 see Italy on $800m, Spain on $700m, Argentina on $400m, the Netherlands, Turkey and Taiwan tied on $300m and Sweden, Switzerland and Malaysia tied on $200m.

Dodd also cited the following data points from the report:

• 80% of the world’s nearly 135,000 cinema screens are now digital;
  
  
• North American box office in 2013 climbed 1% over 2012;
  
  
• More than two-thirds (68%) of the North American population – or 227.8m people – went to the cinema at least once in 2013, consistent with prior years;
  
  
• Frequent filmgoers – defined as those who visit the cinema more than once a month – represented 11% of the North American population and 50% of all ticket sales;
  
  
• Frequent filmgoers tend to own more technology products than the general population. Nearly three-quarters of all frequent filmgoers (74%) own at least four different types of technology products, compared to 50% of the total population;
  
  
• In 2013 the share of tickets sold to two-11 year olds reached its highest point since 2009 and the share of tickets sold to 50-59 year olds climbed to an all-time high;
  
  
• Broader filmgoer demographic shares remained “relatively stable” from 2012 to 2013, with 12-24-year-olds and Hispanics continuing to dominate their proportion of the population; and
  
  
• While Iron Man 3 and Man Of Steel both attracted “overwhelmingly” male audiences, family films Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University drew a mostly female audience and Man Of Steel attracted the most ethnically diverse audience with a 50% Caucasian contingent and 19% from Asian/other ethnicity audiences.

“Our formula for success is simple,” said Dodd. “Hollywood creates and produces extraordinary stories, and you create truly extraordinary theatre experiences. Together in 2013 we made that formula work perfectly.”

Dodd urged attendees to embrace the zeitgeist. “We need to keep exploring fresh ways of leveraging our new technology to drive traffic to your theatres.

“We can embrace technology and use it to complement our offerings… A smartphone can make more content available, but it will never be able to surpass the shared experience that you deliver to every person who sits in your theatres.

“After all,” he continued, “the most frequent moviegoers tend to own more technological devices than the general population. Nearly three-quarters of all frequent moviegoers own at least four different pieces of new technology.”

Dodd also stressed the fight against piracy would continue and remained a priority for Hollywood.