Cinema attendance up 63% in UK and EU in 2022 according to European Audiovisual Observatory; still below pre-pandemic levels

Cinema attendance in the UK and the EU increased by 63% in 2022 according to preliminary data from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

An estimated 643 million tickets were sold in 2022, up from 394 million in 2021.

Admissions were, however, still 34.5% below that of the 2017-2019 average. 

The country to resemble its pre-pandemic levels most closely was Denmark where cinema admissions were 82% of the 2017-2019 average. This was followed by the Czech Republic on 81%, Bulgaria on 77% and Austria and France on 73%.

Latvia had the highest increase in cinema admissions in 2022 where ticket sales were 241% higher than 2021.

In the UK, the market share for national films decreased to 30%, having previously stood at 42% in 2021 and 44% pre-pandemic.

This goes against the trend in the EU where half of the countries had a higher share of national films than 2017-2019. The highest was in France where national films accounted for 41% of the market share.

Early preliminary data also indicates that box office success in 2022 was mainly driven by US studio releases like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way Of Water and Minions: The Rise Of Gru.

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