The audiovisual industry is thriving: in 2018 the box office, the number of theatrical screens and video online services grew up, according to the research by Motion Picture Association of America.
The global entertainment market reached $96.8 billion in 2018 – a nine percent increase over 2017 – according to new, combined theatrical and home entertainment data. The 2018 global box office grew to $41.1 billion of which $11.9 billion from the U.S./Canada box office while $29.2 billion from the rest of the world. The total number of theatrical screens worldwide increased by seven percent, reaching nearly 190,000.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America report, on the global level, seven markets outside the U.S./Canada saw box office totals of $1 billion or more. The Asia Pacific box office totaled $16.7 billion, an increase of five percent compared to 2017. China was the primary growth driver, with a 12 percent increase in box office.
The growth was driven by digital home entertainment, in fact since 2014 digital spending has increased 170 percent globally, reaching $42.6 billion, as confirmed by the Motion Picture Association of America research. In all over the world the number of subscriptions to online video services reached 613 million, an increase of 27 percent in just one year. So subscriptions to online video services surpassed cable subscriptions for the first time in 2018.
