Morocco faces a collapsing Cinema Market

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Moroccan cinema market has been suffering a severe decline during the past years. Box office revenues were nearly reduced by half in less than 10 years. In 2009, cinema revenues reached barely 68 mln DH ($US 8.32 million dollars), down from 117 mln DH ($US 14.32 million) in 2001, according to  Dataxis Intelligence’s market data.

With movie admission reaching less than 2.6 mln in 2009 (down 19% from a year earlier) and a population of 31.5 mln inhabitants, the country saw its admission per capita stand once again at an extremely low level (0.08).

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What can account for the gradual collapse of the Cinema market in Morocco?

If we look at figures from countries who have a comparable GDPs per capita, we can easily see that the economic conditions of the country, which have been relatively improving during the past years,  cannot really be held responsible for this trend.

Colombia for instance recorded 21.561 million admissions in 2008 and generated 155.7 mln Colombian Pesos from this activity in the same year, according to Dataxis Intelligence’s market data. This represents nearly 0.5 admission per capita, compared to 0.08 in Morocco.

On the other hand, 2009 was one of the best years in terms of cinematographic production in Morocco. However, this did not prevent movie admission and revenues from falling.

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What about movie theaters?

Twenty years ago, Morocco had around 200 movie theaters nationwide. This figure fell to 54 theaters and 77 screens in 2009. Dilapidated movie theaters are closing every year. Others are more and more deserted by movie goers.

In an attempt to meet an increasing demand for more ‘attractive’ cinemas, the experience of installing sophisticated movie theaters was initiated a few years ago. It is right now gradually duplicating in some of the country’s major cities. These centers, which involved unprecedented investments in this field (75 mln DH, or $US9.2 mln for the Megarama Center in Marrakech), have managed to attract more and more movie goers.

Unfortunately, these local initiatives are failing to stop the national cinema market’s hemorrhage.

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Worldwide Cinema, DVD and VoD revenues for 2009 will soon be available as part of Dataxis Intelligence’s ‘Entertainment’ market research service.