UIP held onto pole position at the German box office in 2001 with a 20.5% market share, according to ACNielsen/EDI figures, but Warner Bros. was the year's big winner as it more than doubled its share of the market from 2000's 8.3% to 18.8.% thanks in particular to the end-of-year releases of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and The Lord Of The Rings.

The German outpost of Buena Vista also had a good year thanks to such releases as What Women Want and Pearl Harbor, increasing its market share from 9.5% in 2000 to 15.1% last year, whereas Fox's share slipped slightly from 8.5% to 7.8%, with its Planet Of The Apes being the only Fox release to make the year's Top 20.

Columbia TriStar had a disappointing 2001 as it saw its market share melt from 13.4% in 2000 to only 5.6% with its top film A Knight's Tale just making the year's Top 30 at No. 30. However, 2002 is expected to see an upturn in the distributor's fortunes with the releases of such films as Men In Black 2, Stuart Little 2, and the local in-house production of Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt.

Leading German independent distributor Constantin Film had the nation's most popular release in 2001 with Der Schuh Des Manitu's 10.7m admissions, but the disappointing performance of many of the films from Constantin's various output deals meant that its market share fell from 2000's 14.1% to 9.9% in 2001 and its ranking slipped from No. 2 (in 2000) to No. 4.

Senator and Prokino, meanwhile, finished the year with celebrations as they saw their market shares grow: the releases of Chocolat, Das Experiment and Lammbock largely contributed to Senator's share climbing from 2.5% to 5.5%, while almost 80% of Prokino's box office takings during 2001 were generated by its release of Amelie which garnered the Munich-based distributor an overall 2% share.