2011 cinema box office record in Europe. In 2011 EU cinema gross box office takings (GBO) reached a record high of €6.4 billion, and were slightly up by 0.7% compared to figures for 2010, according to the most recent statistics provided by the European Audiovisual Observatory. An estimated 962 million cinema tickets were sold. Though the number of 3D releases as well as 3D screens increased notably in 2011, the format seemed to be maturing in some markets like the UK where, despite an increasing number of 3D releases - from 28 in 2010 to 47 in 2011 - 3D share dropped from 24% to 20% of total GBO. On the level of individual European markets, 2011 cinema-going trends varied significantly, with admissions decreasing in 11 and increasing in 15 EU markets for which data were available, while GBO increased in 14 and decreased in 12 markets. Cinema markets, which performed particularly well, were France (GBO record up 4.7%), the UK (+5.2%) and Germany (+4.1%) while Spain and Italy experienced a significant decline in both admissions as well as GBO. 2011 saw European films claiming back market share, which they had lost to US 3D blockbusters in 2009 and 2010. Based on provisional figures, estimated market share for European films in the EU climbed from 25.2% to 28.5% in 2011, back to the “pre-3D” levels of 2007 and 2008. Market share for US films, on the other hand fell from 68.5% to an estimated 61.4%. This would be the lowest level since 2001. The comeback of European films was mainly thanks to a series of local comedies such as “Intouchables” (France), “The In-betweeners” (UK), “Kokowääh” (Germany) or “Che bella giornata” (Italy), all of which performed extremely well, particularly on their home markets. As a result national market share increased in 15 of the 23 EU member states for which data were available, eight of which achieved the highest market share in the past five years. French films once more attracted the largest number of admissions among European films, accounting for 10.5% of total EU admissions. Backed by strong results in their home market, Italian films ranked second, taking 4.6%, followed by German and UK productions which each accounted for 3.7% of total admissions in the EU. EU production levels continued to grow to 1,285 feature films in 2011, 59 films more than in 2010 and a new record high. Growth was driven both by an increase in fiction (up 26 films), as well as feature documentaries (up 33 films). Total production volume splits into 915 fiction films (71% of total feature films) and at least 370 feature documentaries (29%). With over 200 national initiative feature films produced in 2011, France and the UK were the countries with the highest production levels in Europe. The digitalisation process is continuing and France made the most rapid progress in digitising its screen base and further strengthened its position as Europe's largest digital cinema market with a total of 3,656 digital screens by the end of 2011, by far the largest digital screen base in Europe. The UK and Germany followed at a distance with 2,724 and 2,303 digital screens respectively, while there were around 1,500 digital screens in the remaining three major European cinema markets of Spain, Italy and the Russian Federation. With 72% of its total screens converted to digital at end 2011, the UK proportionally had the highest digital screen penetration among the six major European markets, ahead of France (67%), with 50% and 54% for Germany and Russia respectively followed by Spain and Italy with 39% and 38%. (IL/transl.fl)