Learning on ScreenEncountering Europe on Screen
Circulating European film and television drama
Half way into the project our initial findings reveal that – despite the EU’s best efforts – the circulation of European film remains low. Of the 1 billion or so cinema tickets sold in the EU each year, only about 10% are for non-national European films – i.e. European films which travel to another European country. About two-thirds of EU cinema admissions are American movies, while a quarter are for national films. Between 2005 and 2012, just 1.5% of the films produced in Europe sold 1 million tickets or more in the rest of the EU outside their country of origin – and many of these were British films backed by US studios, such as the James Bond or Harry Potter franchises.
Policy interventions appear to have made little difference. Our analysis of the impact of MEDIA funding on the UK box office performance of non-national European films, for example, shows that for every €3 of MEDIA distribution support a film receives, the distributor can expect to gain only one extra ticket sale. In other words, if we consider that the average MEDIA award received by UK distributors is about €40,000, this would likely result in an extra 14,000 admissions – which converts to only €20,000 in extra revenue after the exhibitor and the taxman have taken their cut. Far more influential on the performance of European films are factors like the size and strength of the distributor; the familiarity of the cast and director; whether the film has received good reviews; and whether it has a story which is newsworthy or already familiar to audiences.
About two-thirds of EU cinema admissions are American movies, while a quarter are for national films.
The cross-border circulation of European television drama is perhaps more positive. In Denmark, for example, non-national European television series claim a 42% audience share, compared with 14% for US series and 33% for national series. Shows from neighbouring Sweden, Norway and Finland perform particularly well (highlighting the importance of cultural and geographical proximity), as do English-language programmes from the UK and Ireland. However, acquiring an accurate picture of consumption patterns across Europe is more of a challenge for television than cinema. Whereas resources such as the European Audiovisual Observatory’s LUMIERE database and the British Film Institute’s (BFI) Statistical Yearbooks provide free and accurate data on cinema admissions, researchers have to pay a high premium to companies like the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) or Eurodata TV Worldwide for the equivalent figures on television audiences. (Fortunately we have managed to acquire some free television data through our associate partners, underlining the importance of these industry links.) Equally problematic has been the lack of viewing figures for Video-on-Demand (VoD) platforms for both film and television dramas.
One way round this has been to utilise audience surveys, such as the BFI’s Opening Our Eyes: How Film Contributes to the Culture of the UK (2011) or the European Commission’s A Profile of Current and Future Audiovisual Audiences (2014). These sources reveal – or perhaps confirm – that non-national European films attract a particular audience. They tend to be youngish, well-educated, urban-dwelling professionals. They are not necessarily high earners, but do generally possess a high level of cultural capital. That said, certain non-national European films do occasionally reach outside this core audience. In the UK, for example, horrors such as The Orphanage (2007), Let the Right One In (2008) and Troll Hunter (2010) have attracted a more working-class audience than most subtitled films, highlighting the importance of genre in terms of influencing how well films travel.
What is less clear at this stage, though, is the role that European film and television dramas play in constructing a sense of European identity. Certainly the fact that European film appeals to a fairly niche audience limits its capacity to boost feelings of Europeanness, though this may be offset by the higher consumption of European television drama. However, we will only know for sure what European film and television dramas actually mean to audiences once our own questionnaire surveys and focus groups, which are due to take place over the next few months, are completed.
