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Back Europeans have access to over 8,500 European films on VOD in their country on average

Published 07/04/22

European Audiovisual Observatory publishes new report on the circulation of European films on VOD and in cinemas in 21 European countries

Europeans have access to over 8,500 European films on VOD in their country on average

Download "Circulation of European films on VOD and in cinemas"

On average, European consumers in the 21 European countries covered by our report have access to 8 528 European films on VOD in their countries, of which 6 958 are of European nonnational origin on any given day (May 2021 data). This compares to an average of 3 394 European films released in cinemas from 1996 to 2020 in the 21 European countries, of which 2 244 are of European non-national origin.
Out of the 27 944 European films released in cinemas in the 21 countries (1996 – 2020) 16 515 films (59%) were available on VOD in May 2021 in at least one country.
The main metrics/drivers explaining later VOD availability of theatrically released European films are commercial/theatrical success measured by theatrical admissions, the importance of the theatrical release measured by the number of theatrical release markets, perceived quality measured by awards and IMDb ratings, recentness of the film measured by the year of production and origin of a film measured by the country of origin. The report explores these 5 drivers which explain to some extent the later VOD availability of European theatrically released nonnational films.

The European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg has just published a new trailblazing report on the circulation of European films on VOD and in cinemas.

This new report was authored by Christian Grece, TV and VOD Analyst within the Observatory’s Department for Market Information. The theatrical film exploitation data comes from the Observatory’s LUMIERE database, the VOD film exploitation data is based on data provided by JustWatch and available in the Observatory’s LUMIERE VOD database.

A few key findings of the report:

The offer of theatrically released European non-national films on VOD in May 2021 is on average 71% higher than the number of European non-national films released in cinemas from 1996 to 2020 in a given country. On average, 3 336 theatrically released European non-national films are available on VOD, compared to 1 949 European non-national films released in cinemas in the 25-year period.
This is due to the fact that VOD services offer the most successful European non-national films released in cinemas in the country (1 072 on average, 48% of theatrically released European non-national films in the country from 1996 to 2020 are available on VOD, representing 83% of admissions to European non-national films) and increase their offer of theatrical European non-national films by offering on average 2 264 films released in cinemas in other European countries but not the country of VOD availability.

Commercial/theatrical success is the main explaining driving factor for VOD availability for European non-national films, as films available on VOD have an above-average level of admissions while films not available on VOD have a below-average level of admissions.

The importance of the theatrical release is also correlated to later VOD availability while 82% of films not available on VOD had one theatrical release markets, often in their home market.

Awards are a driver for VOD availability, with awards from major international films festivals and important national festivals being boosters for circulation in cinemas and on VOD.