Europe’s Films on the Move box-office support has a “significant positive impact” report finds

European films that have received distribution grants from Creative Europe’s Films on the Move scheme generated on average €1.70 at the box office for every €1 invested, according to new research.

For every €1,000 in grant funding, it reported an extra €1,700 in box office takings and an additional 16 showtimes generated.

Ruben Ostlund’s Triangle Of Sadness generated the highest return from a €985,000 Films on the Move grant, taking €19.3m at the European box office outside its national release, a return of 19.6 times on the award.

Further successful grant outcomes include to Anatomy Of A Fall (€14.4m box office vs €757,000 grant) and The Teachers Lounge (€11.32m vs €497,000).

Formerly called the Selective Distribution Support, Films on the Move has an annual €16m budget to support the cross-border distribution of recent European films. It encourages sales agents and theatrical distributors to invest in a coordinated promotion and distribution campaign for films across multiple countries outside the movie’s home territory.

Films that received the grant achieved 60% of their box office outside their home country, compared to just 40% for films that applied but were not selected, according to the research.

The research concluded Films On The Move grant funding has “a statistically significant positive impact in terms of increasing both the revenue and theatrical distribution of content”.

Bigger impact

However, there was a bigger impact in smaller territories (€1,970 extra box office and 31 additional showtimes) than in their larger counterparts (€1,600 and 10 additional showtimes) per €1,000 grant funding.

Supported films played on average in 13 supported countries and only 4.5 countries where they didn’t receive support for that territory. They also played on more platforms.

The genres with the largest impact as a result of the grant were sci-fi and drama.

However, many releases did not report a significant boost from the grant, including high-profile titles such as Nicolas Philibert’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner On the Adamant, Jessica Hausner’s Cannes competition title Club Zero, Alice Diop’s Venice competition title Saint Omer and Lady Ly’s Toronto premiere Les Indesirables.

On The Adamant received €449,3000 support from Films on the Move, but generated just €220,4000 at the box office outside its national release. Club Zero received €656,700 but took €306,000 at the box office, while Saint Omer received €356,800 but took €309,100 and Les Indesirables received €510,900 but took €189,200.

The analysis, published this week by the European Commission’s directorate for communications networks, content and technology (DG CNECT), was undertaken by Usheru.

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