Top five Cinema markets account for nearly 60% of global Box Office

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

With 1.3 billion movie admissions, the U.S. cinema market generated a record of US$ 10.6 bn in revenues in 2009, or 36% of the worldwide box office, far ahead of Japan, the second ranked country in terms of annual box office receipts. India, which records each year nearly three times as many movie goers as does the U.S, comes third in worldwide cinema revenues. This paradoxical situation can be explained by the fact that the average ticket price in the country (US$ 0.5) is today one of the lowest in the world. The fourth and fifth positions are attributed to France and the U.K., which account for 5% and a 4% of global cinema revenues respectively.

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Consequently, the world’s top 5 cinema markets alone generate nearly 60% of global revenues, a situation that can be attributed to many reasons that range from ticket price to the cultural realities of each market (that is, the degree to which cinema is rooted in cultural habits, and whether piracy threatens movie going trends) and, sometimes, the mere existence of movie theaters (Ex: Saudi Arabia) or at least the existence of attractive yet affordable cinemas (Ex: Morocco, see “Morocco faces a collapsing Cinema Market“).

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Leading market research and data analysis firm Dataxis Intelligence will soon release its 2009 annual update of the TV, music, cinema and video markets worldwide.