Global Box Office Revenues Exceed $40B in 2017, Up 5% Year-Over-Year

April 19, 2018

The total amount of box office revenues for all films released in countries around the world grew to $40.6 billion last year, representing a 5% increase over 2016’s total of $36.6 billion. That’s according to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which released its THEME Report [pdf] covering activity in 2017.

The increase in global box office revenues was entirely due to the international (non-North American) market, which enjoyed a 7% increase to $29.5 billion. By contrast, the US and Canadian box office total failed to meet last year’s record ($11.4 billion), dropping 2% to match the previous record of $11.1 billion set in 2015.

As as result, the international (non-US/Canada) share of global box office revenues increased a couple of points to 73%. International box office revenues have now grown by 18% since 2013, compared to a 2% rise in US and Canadian revenues over that same period.

For comparison’s sake, PwC last year forecast that US box office revenues would grow at a 1.2% annual clip from 2016 ($10.6 billion) through 2021 ($11.2 billion).

Meanwhile, growth was observed across all international regions. The EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) experienced a 4% year-over-year increase, of $0.5 billion, to $10.1 billion in revenues. Although Latin American box office revenues surged the most (by 22%), the volume increase was not too great given that it’s a smaller market. Box office revenues in Latin America were up by $0.6 billion, to $3.4 billion.

The largest international market is the Asia-Pacific region, which grew by 6% to $16 billion. It’s also the fastest-growing market since 2013, with a sizable 44% increase (from $11.1 billion).

China is by far the single largest international market, accounting for $7.9 billion in box office revenues last year, 4 times higher than the next-largest market, Japan ($2 billion).

China appears to be closing the gap with North America, as the US and Canada combined for $11.1 billion in box office revenues.

Within the US and Canada there were 1.24 billion admissions last year, reports the MPAA, equating to 3.6 per capita. That was the lowest per-capita admissions in at least a decade, though, down from 3.8 the 2 years prior and from a peak of 4.3 in 2009.

Nonetheless the 1.24 billion admissions last year was more than double the number of admissions to Theme Parks (414 million) and major US sports (133 million), combined.

Home Entertainment Market Grows in Clout

While the number of admissions and total box office revenues declined in the US and Canada last year, the same can’t be said for the home entertainment market.

In fact, the digital home entertainment market in the US jumped by 20% to almost $13.7 billion, more than offsetting the 15% decline in the physical home entertainment market (to $6.8 billion). The cumulative effect was a 5.2% increase in US home entertainment spending, to $20.49 billion.

Globally, consumer spending on home entertainment increased by 11% to $47.8 billion.

Overall, home entertainment accounted for 54% of combined theatrical and home entertainment consumer spending, as digital home entertainment constituted 36% of the total, and physical home entertainment another 18%. Last year, then, the box office accounted for 46% of the combined total spent on theatrical and home entertainment, down from 47.4% in 2016. In the US, the comparable figure for box office was 35% share of the total market.

The full report can be viewed here.

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