02/05/2003

According to the annual report for 2002 for film attendance at theatres belonging to the Europa Cinemas circuit, French cinema was Number One in Europe. The report was published on 1 May by the European Audiovisual Observatory and found that Europe’s top-performing Gallic title in 2002 was Asterix and Obelix : Mission Cleopatra, seen by 20 milion EU filmgoers.
French cinema dominated Europe with total attendance within the EU set at 185.1 million, followed by the United Kingdom’s 176 million, up 13 per cent), Germany’s 163.9 million, down 7.9 per cent, Spain’s 140.7 and Italy’s 112 million.

The Europa Cinemas circuit has a total of 1130 screens in 51 countries and their policy of programming European films clearly paid dividends with over 21 million of their customers choosing to see a European film in 2002 (14 million chose to see a European but not domestically-produced film).
Five of the top ten European films programmed in 2002 by Europa Cinema were French : Amélie [+see also:
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film profile] (962,000 tickets sold in 16 countries) and second only to Speak to Her [+see also:
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film profile], followed by Ozon’s 8 Women [+see also:
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film profile] and Polanski’s The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile] which came 6th and is still being screened in the Circuit’s theatres. A documentary, Essere e Avere conquered the 8th position followed by Peuple Migrateur in 9th.
European cinema is doing well and in 2002, averaged a 19.5 per cent share of the national markets. However, European films tend to underperform when screened outside the Continent while their American counterparts get global distribution.

French cinema performed well in north America in 2002, with three Gallic titles making it into the Top 8 US and Canadian box office tables : Le Transporteur seen by 4.3 milioni filmgoers, Amélie (2.9 million) and Le Company of Wolves (1.8 million).

(Translated from French)