According to the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), international co-productions have a wider distribution and generate more admissions than national films.
Even if the number of majority co-productions produced rose from 297 in 2007 to 425 in 2016, still today most countries produce more national films than majority co-production ones. In detail, On average 21% (at EU level) of the overall production in Europe over the period 2007-2016 were majority co-productions. Only two countries, Belgium and Luxembourg, producing more as majority co-producers than as fully national producers. Data are part of “The legal framework for international co-productions” report by the European Audiovisual Observatory.
In absolute terms, the top producing country in Europe is France with 566 co-productions over the 2007-2016 period. It is followed by Spain (460), Germany (411) and Switzerland (221). 150 countries were involved in European co-productions over the period 2010-2015. Some interactions which were relatively recurrent. In particular, French-Belgian collaborations topped the ranking of most frequent bi-national co-production tie-ups, with 207 such films between 2010 and 2015. British-American (80), Italian-French (63), French-German (61) were the other most frequent combinations.
According to the EAO report, who decides to work with a beyond the borders partner has a return. Despite, in fact, accounting for only 24.2% of the total production volume in Europe, worldwide admissions to co-productions are slightly higher than those for purely national films. These ones amounted to 50,3% for a total of 262.9 million sold tickets. In addition, international co-productions have a wider circulation. In detail, 62.9% of majority coproductions produced in Europe between 2010 and 2015 received a theatrical release in a country other than the main country of production, while, on average, this percentage is of 32,1% for purely national productions.
