Box office and attendance of cinemas up in 2014 in EU. - European cinemas were visited more in 2014 and European films took record market shares, according to the provisional statistics of the European Audiovisual Observatory, which were presented on Tuesday 5 May. The digitisation of cinemas is, additionally, almost complete. The publication Focus 2015: World Film Market Trends provides the following information: - Gross box office and attendance. In the 28 member states of the European Union, gross box office receipts were up slightly (by €40 million) on 2013, to reach €6.32 billion in 2014. Despite this 0.6% increase, this is the worst result in the last five years. As in 2013, the box office curve follows the attendance curve, which was also up slightly (+0.7%), with 911 million tickets sold, corresponding to 6.5 million more than in 2013. As for the average price of cinema seats, this has remained more or less stable throughout Europe since 2012 (€6.9 on average). More specifically, gross box office was up in 14 of the 27 member states of the EU for which data are available and fell in 13 others. The greatest increases were to be seen in France and Spain (+€15 million; +3% each) and in Poland (+€15 million; +9.7%), whilst the greatest decreases were registered in Italy (-€46 million; -7.1%) and in Germany (-€43 million; -4.2%). Outside the EU, Russia confirmed its position as the second largest European market in terms of admissions. It registered 175 million tickets sold and gross box office of €43.3 billion, or an increase of 2.4% on 2013. Although the growth in box office revenue in Russia seems to have levelled off, the impressive tendency seen in Turkey in recent years has continued, with ticket sales jumping to €61.4 million (+22% compared to 2013) and gross box office on the increase, to 655 million Turkish lira (+30%), the highest level in decades. Due to the considerable depreciation of the currencies of both of these countries, however, gross box office expressed in Euro is down 14% in Russia, to €862 million, and 2.5% in Turkey, standing at €189 million. - Market share of European and American films. The European Audiovisual Observatory also noted that blockbuster films, which are principally American, are drawing considerably fewer cinema-goers than in previous years. The market share of American films fell to 63.1%, a long way below the record level of 69.5% registered in 2013. At the same time, total ticket sales for European films are on the increase and is becoming the main driving force behind the overall increase in cinema attendance in the EU. The market share of European films grew from 26.2% to 33.4%. This is their best performance since 1996, when the Observatory began to calculate this value. - Film production in the EU. Production levels in the EU continued to grow, following several decades of steady growth. In 2014, the number of European feature-length films rose from 1,587 to 1,603 films, setting a new record. Some 32% of European feature-length films are the result of co-production, and the other 68% on national productions. - Digitisation of theatres. Finally, on the digitisation of cinema screens, 1,858 new screens in the European Union were converted to digital projection systems last year, bringing the total number of digital screens to 27,899. At the end of 2014, this meant that 92% of all cinema screens in the EU were digitised. Only five member states registered digital screen penetration rates below 70%, including the Czech Republic, with 53%, Greece with 38% and the Baltic states. (Isabelle Lamberty)