Total box-office admissions in European Union countries fell 2.2% in 2007 compared to 2006.

The Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory says that 910m tickets were sold, which means 2007 was still well above the low of 898.8m in 2005.

Bucking the trend was the UK up 3.7% and Italy up 8.4%.

Eastern Europe saw large gains for the Czech Republic (11.4%), Lithuania (34%), Bulgaria (4.6%). However, Hungary fell 13.8%.

In Western Europe, Germany, Spain and France dropped 8.2%, 7.7% and 5.6% respectively.

Outside the EU, ticket sales in the Russian Federation rose 16.1% yet Switzerland fell 12.5%, Norway fell 10.4% and Turkey fell 10.7%.

Local productions fared well in many markets, rising 7.2% to 33% in Italy, up 8% to 28% in the UK, up 8.8% to 25% in Poland and up 5.1% to 35% in the Czech Republic. However, Germany's local market share fell 6.9% to 18.9% and admissions to local French productions fell 8.1% to 36.5%.

All 2007 figures are provisional.

Topics