Brussels, 10/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to the European Audiovisual Monitoring Centre, the market share of European films significantly fell during 2000 against the American film industry, while the cinema attendance rose 4.4%. American films are once more carving out a lion's share, by increasing by more than 4% in the EU in 2000 and by thus gaining 73.7% of the market, with successes such as Gladiator (24.6 million) and Toy Story II (23.7 million). Though the new development of 2000 is no doubt the breakthrough of Asian cinema. More than 11 million spectators saw the Japanese film Pokemon, while the 2000 Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Dancer in the Dark, by Lars Von Their, totalled 2.5 million ticket. The data for the theatre attendance show a clear fall for European productions, whose market share in the EU went from 29.2% in 1999 to 22.5% in 2000. However, 844 million people bought their ticket in the EU, which represents an increase of 4% compared to 1999 (which the success of Titanic had had exceptional). This growth is all the more remarkable that the attendance fell 3% in the United States, noted the European monitoring centre. The attendance in theatres saw a rise in nearly all the EU countries, with the exception of a slight slowdown in Denmark (-2%). The most significant increases where seen in Ireland (19.5%), the Netherlands (16.1%), in Austria (8.5%), France (8%) and in Sweden (6.3%). The most modest growth was in Spain (3.1%), Germany (2.3%) and the United Kingdom (2.2%).
The bad results for European films are put down to their weak performance in their own national markets and outside the EU. France remains the country where national productions are holding out best, but it has experienced the worst year since 1994 (28.9% in 2000 against 3.2% in 1999). The falls have been the greatest in Italy (16.5% against 21.3%), in Germany (12.5% against 14%) and in Spain (10.1% against 13.8%). In the United Kingdom, the market share for British films rose from 17.8% to 21%. Outside the EU, European films did not circulate as well as in previous years. In the United States, the occupied a modest share of 3.9% in 2000 and lost 30 million tickets compared to 1999. In the EU, only two European films, Chicken Run (12 million tickets) and Taxi 2 (11 million have been a true success in terms of attendance.