Buoyant box office sees increased admissions and better performances from Dutch films.

The Netherlands box office showed widespread improvement in 2011, according to an annual review from the Eye Film Institute Netherlands.

Box office increased by 9.4% year-on-year to €239.9m and admissions increased by 7.96% to 30.4m.

For the first time since 1986’s Flodder, a Dutch feature - Gooische Vrouwen - attracted more than 1.9 million cinema-goers, making it the number one film at the box office, ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

National films fared well, posting a 61% year-on-year increase in box office to €52m and a 7% increase in the total market share.

Warner Bros’ easily claimed the largest distributor marketshare at 24.71% and released the most films with 34. Average ticket price increased by 1.29% to €7.88 while IFF Rotterdam was the country’s best-attended festival with 340,000 attendees.

The box office improvement can in part be put down to marginally higher ticket prices, the success of Dutch films, the proliferation of 3D and the increasing numbers of screens and chairs. In the past five years, 13,000 seats and 96 screens were added.

Despite the box office success in 2011, the industry is bracing itself for upcoming cuts to film subsidies which the report warns could result in a decrease in national productions.

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