According to initial findings compiled by the Council of Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory, cinema attendance in wider Europe rose to approximately 859 million admissions in 2023. This reflects a positive year-on-year rise of 18.1%, signifying an increase of 131.8 million tickets compared to 2022. These figures, while encouraging, still fall short of the pre-pandemic average of 1.11 billion yearly admissions observed between 2017 and 2019 (-22.9%).
Similarly, within the European Union and the United Kingdom (EU27+UK ), admissions soared to an estimated 784.7 million in 2023, marking an uptick of 128.9 million tickets from the previous year, representing a remarkable 19.7% year-on-year growth. In this case, admissions are down 20.1% compared to pre-pandemic averages.
