The new Avatar of the global box-office

Last year was unusually good for film business globally and the US, EU and China lead in this revival, according to Focus 2010, a report on world film trends released at Cannes recently. In the US, the largest market in the world, total box office revenues jumped a billion dollars to cross $10 billion, after three years of stagnation. That was a little less than half the box office gross in four major regions – North America, EU, China and Japan.

Films produced in America and by US-based studios continued to rule the box office globally, with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the top of the 2009 numbers. That is because the film at number two position, Avatar, was still running in theatres in December 2009, when these figures were compiled (see table). It is estimated that eventually Avatar will bring in more than Harry Potter’s sixth adventure.

James Cameron’s eco-fantasy is, in fact, changing the structure of the film business globally.

It was in the race to catch the release of Avatar in mid-December 2009 that theatres across the world digitised and, more importantly, went for 3D instead of 2D digitisation. While the total number of digital screens doubled in 2009 over 2008, 2D digital screens grew about 20 per cent; 3D grew over three times the number in 2008. This was led in large part by the urgency to capture the upside on revenues from Avatar, also released in 3D format (see chart).

The report details trends on admissions, box office takings and films produced, among other variables, from almost every major country in the world. It is put together every year by the European Audio Visual Observatory, a part of the Council of Europe.

The speed of digitisation, however, is causing concern about the survival of independent exhibitors (theatre firms) in Europe. The issue was also the subject of a conference in Barcelona, earlier this year. Many theatres are not able to bear the costs while the transition to digital, an expensive proposition, happens. While they raise the money and get equipment in, they may actually miss a few major releases and lose money, especially in an economic slowdown year. Whether they should be subsidised in some form during the transition period has been the subject of discussion and debate.
 

Top 20 films worldwide by gross box office, 2009
Figures in $ million Original title	Studio	Country  of origin	North  American box office	Inter- national  box office	Total
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Warner Bros.	GB inc/US	302	632	934
Avatar *#	Fox	US/GB	352	547	899
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs#	Fox	US	197	691	888
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Paramount	US	402	433	835
2012*	Sony	US/CA	163	591	754
Up#	Disney	US	293	417	710
New Moon*	Summit	US	288	400	688
Angels & Demons	Sony	US	133	352	485
The Hangover	Warner Bros	US/DE	277	190	467
Night at the Museum: Battle of the...	Fox	US/CA	177	238	415
Star Trek	Paramount	US	258	128	386
Monsters vs Aliens	Par-D’Works	US	198	183	381
X-Men Origins: Wolverine	Fox	US	180	195	375
Terminator Salvation	WB-Soney	US	125	247	372
Fast & Furious	Universal	US	155	208	363
Inglourious Basterds	Weinstein-U	US/DE	121	199	320
The Proposal	Disney	US	164	153	317
A Christmas Carol*	Disney	US	137	174	311
G.I.Joe: The rise of Cobra	Paramount	US/CZ	150	152	302
G. Force	Disney	US	119	165	284
* Still on release in 2010;   # Films available in 3D distribution.                                          Source: Variety, OBS

The India section, not surprisingly, only shows the top 10 Hindi films. There are very few reliable sources of data on Indian films and most of them focus on Hindi, the biggest chunk (in value) of the $2-billion gross box office revenues in 2008. Incidentally, the share of non-Indian films was eight per cent of total box-office, according to the report. That is up from an estimated five per cent a few years back. All those dubbed superhero movies seem to be working.