Why European Cinema Is on a Critical High, But Also a Commercial Low
Critically, European films are having a hell of a year. Euro cinema is well represented in this season’s Oscar race, with the likes of Jacques Audiard’s transgender crime musical Emilia Pérez, Edward Berger’s papal thriller Conclave, Coralie Fargeat’s body horror satire The Substance, Steve McQueen’s WW2 drama Blitz, Tim Fehlbaum’s historic thriller September 5, and Pablo Almodovar’s end-of-life drama The Room Next Door, are among the award frontrunners.
Commercially, it’s another story. On Thursday, the European Audiovisual Observatory (Eao), a research body, published its annual report on the theatrical performance of European movies worldwide. It’s not a pretty picture.
According to Eao, European films accounted for just 6 percent of worldwide ticket sales in 2023, compared to 56 percent for U.S. productions and 26 percent for Chinese films. Japan, thanks to the global success of anime, is close on Europe’s heels, with Japanese releases
