White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 7market for films in cinemas, ashighlighted by the difficultiesexperienced by operators in the sectorin attracting public attention andcompeting effectively. Understandingwhat kind of critical factors may existto compete successfully thus becomesvital. It is equally important tounderstand the specific features of theItalian situation and if what happens inItaly is much different from whathappens in the rest of Europe (or atleast on its principal markets). Theseare some aspects we wish to explore inthe following paragraphs, in which wewill attempt to interpret and assess thefuture of Italian cinema in particular.A look at the European sceneBefore making a detailed analysis of theItalian market, it may be useful to takea brief look at the situation of theEuropean film industry xxviii to try andunderstand how far Italy departs fromthe main European trends. As areference time period we haveconsidered 1995-2005.In this period Europe recorded positivegrowth rates both in the numbers ofcinema admissions and box officereceipts. Proceeds rose from 3,138million euros in 1995 to 5,026 millioneuros in 2005, an overall averageincrease of around 60%. This constantgrowth only dipped twice: in 2003there was a fall of 6% and in 2005, areduction of 10%. The number ofcinema admissions shows a similartrend, rising from 682 to 860 million,an overall average increase of around25%. As in the case of the box office,there were only very few downturns:1999 (-1%), 2003 (-5%) and 2005 (-11%).But if we compare the situations inEurope and the USA (see Figure 7.1),we note that despite a significantEuropean growth in recent years, theUS film market has a much greatereconomic weight than the Europeanmarkets. For example, as regards thebox office figures, while in Europetotal proceeds were just over 5 billioneuros in 2005, in the USA, 2005 wasthe fourth year in a row with overallproceeds of almost 9 billion dollars. Tobe precise, 2005 actually showed aslight dip compared to the previousthree years, when proceeds were alwaysover 9 billion dollars. The number ofadmissions also dropped in 2005(around -9%), and the overall figurewas 1.4 billion. In this case, however,the decrease was not exceptional, sincethe number of tickets sold in UScinemas had had a negative trend since2002 (in the last three-year period therewas an overall downturn of around5%).WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 165