European Box Office slumps as local films wither
From Jeffrey Goldfarb

LONDON—A dearth of strong, local films severely dented box office revenue in most of Europe this year, with only Britain holding steady thanks to a stream of homegrown favourites such as “Pride & Prejudice” and the latest “ Harry Potter.”
German film executives expect a decline of as much as 20 percent even with end-of-year help from blockbusters “King Kong” and “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” while France, Spain and Italy could end the year down more than 10 percent, according to industry estimates.
Filmmakers and cinema owners typically blame such slumps on everything from sluggish economies to piracy to the growing rush to move new movies from the big screen to DVD, all of which are said to have contributed to the 2005 fall-off.
But the primary culprit cited by industry executives this year was a lack of quality local films. That, coupled with a widely perceived weak crop from Hollywood, created the steep decline in so many countries.
“We won’t see another year as bad as 2005 next year,” said Frank Mackenroth, head of media and entertainment at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hamburg. “But in the medium term, we are set to see stagnation in Germany while we expect fairly stable growth across western Europe.”
He forecast that western European consumers would spend on average 4.4 percent more every year at the box office from 2005 to 2009, though Germany is expected to lag with only an average 0.4 percent gain over the same span.
Some studio executives were unfazed by the declining attendance figures, at least publicly, perceiving it as a cyclical problem, not the start of a more permanent one. “When we look at the ups and downs in the marketplace, frequently they are seasonal or product-related and reflect shifts that are all manageable,” said James Gianopulos, the co-chairman of 20th Century Fox Filmed Entertainment.
He sees growth in places like Russia and Poland, where box office revenue is expected to surge by about 20 percent in 2005 with the spread of multiplex cinemas and strong economic growth, providing consumers with more disposable income.
“The U.S. is roughly 300 million people and the rest of the world is 6 billion people, so when you think of the opportunity of international markets, that’s the best example,” he said, noting that about half the studio’s revenue comes from outside the United States despite the population disparity.
U.S. box office revenue is expected to fall about 5.3 percent to $8.9 billion with admissions dropping 7.3 percent to 1.4 billion, a third straight year of decline, according to tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.
BRITAIN BUCKS THE TREND
Britain is bucking the global trend, however, and expecting flat revenue, or perhaps even a small gain at the box office, powered by a yearlong output of local films including “Closer,” “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Nanny McPhee,” “Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “Pride & Prejudice.” About a quarter of 2004 German box office revenue was generated by local films, led by the sci-fi comedy “(T)Raumschiff Surprise - Periode 1” with more than 9 million viewers.