Overall fall in total cinema admissions in Europe last year. According to the most recent European Audiovisual Observatory report for European cinema in 2012, European cinema admissions are estimated to have fallen by 0.9%, but a number of countries showed strong progress. The most significant fall was in the European Union. Nordic countries, Russia and Turkey, however, showed strong gains. The biggest increase was registered by Bosnia and Herzegovina (+37.9%), while Russia was up 5.8%, Turkey 3.9% and Finland led the Nordic countries at +19%. Since 2009, there has been a slight downward trend in European Union admissions, the average rate of change being -1.2% per year. The top four EU countries (France, UK, Germany and Italy), together accounting for almost two-thirds of EU admissions, declined by 2.8% in 2012, with reductions in France and Italy outweighing gains in the UK and Germany. Northern and some eastern areas of Europe showed increases, while France and Southern Europe showed declines: Cyprus - 5.7%, Spain, - 6.5%, Slovenia -8.3%, Italy -9.9% and Portugal -12.3%. The decline in Southern Europe reflected a shortage of local hits as well as the wider economic recession. Higher rates of online piracy may also have contributed to the decline. 2012 data illustrate once more the volatility of the film market and the impact of national success on annual results. For example, eight out of the top 12 films in Turkey were Turkish films and two out of the top 15 films in Finland were sequels to popular family films, Ricky Rapper and Cool Wendy and Niko 2 - Little Brother, Big Trouble. In Norway, the Norwegian hit Kon Tiki was the top film of the year, while in Denmark, local hits This Life, Love Is All You Need and A Royal Affair took 2nd, 3rd and 5th positions. In Gross Box Office (GBO) terms, the strongest gains were registered by Bosnia and Herzegovina (+46%), Romania (+28%), the Nordics (+7 to +22%) and Russia (+14%). At the other end of the scale, the largest declines were in Slovenia (-8.3%), Italy (-8%), Portugal (-7.6%), Spain (-6.5%) and Cyprus (-5.7%). National films' share of cinema admissions tends to fluctuate from year to year depending on the strength of local releases in the given year. For Europe as a whole, national market share is estimated to have fallen slightly to 13% in 2012, from 15% in 2011. The highest national market shares were reported by Turkey (46.6%), France (40.2%), the UK (32.1%), Denmark (28.5%) and Finland (28%). Early indications are that the US share of the European Market was about the same on average as in 2012 (66%) as it was in 2011. On other major international cinema markets, there were box office gains of 5.9% in the USA, 33% in China (making China the world's second biggest market after the USA) and 7.7% in Japan. (IL/transl.fl)