German cinemas took a total of €422.3m from 41.5m admissions in the first six months of 2023, according to provisional figures collated by Comscore.
The first half-year’s box office takings represent a huge 42.1% year-on-year increase on the same period for last year (2022) – and are almost back to the same level as for the first six months in 2019 before the pandemic
Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie was the most successful new release between January and the end of June with over €50m and 5.1m admissions - followed in second place by Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 (€22.5 /1.9m admissions).
However, based on box-office revenues, James Cameron’s Avatar - The Way of Water eclipsed Super Mario Bros, having amassed a total of €138m and 10.1m admissions since opening in mid-December 2022. The film still playing at 46 venues on its 22nd week of release in mid-May.
The long life of Cameron’s blockbuster and other releases such as the third outing of Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Little Mermaid ensured that Disney led the field of distributors with a 30.2% market share of overall box-office takings and 25.2% share of the total admissions for the first half of 2023.
Distributor rankings
Universal was the second most successful distributor in the period with a 22.6% market share of the box office. The Super Mario Bros. Movie contributed more than half of the €94.8m posted by the 27 Universal titles released since January including Fast & Furious 10 and Book Club 2.
Leonine claimed the honours of third place in the ranking of distributors - with a 9.2% market share - as well as being the top independent distributor. Leonine enjoyed a continuing strong performance from its 2022 release of family film School of Magical Animals 2, and also released John Wick: Chapter 4, the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once and the animated film Rabbit Academy: Mission Eggpossible.
German films
German films’ market share in the first six months was 19.9% - up from 14.8% posted for the same period in 2022. Three releases - Sony Pictures’ family film Die Drei ??? - Erbe des Drachen, Constantin Film’s Sun and Concrete, and Til Schweiger’s comedy sequel Manta Manta - Zwoter Teil - posted almost €35m in total between them.
While overall box-office takings until the end of June were only 1.9% below the result for the same period in 2019, Germany’s cinema-owners and distributors probably hoped for an even better result given the number of strong US studio titles that came out over the past six months. However, they hadn’t reckoned with the six weeks’ heatwave during May and June which saw temperatures pass 37 degrees at one point. Potential audiences looked for ways to cool off at the beach or in open-air swimming baths rather than come to the cinema.
No comments yet