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INDUSTRY Germany

German box office 2012 set to break sound barrier

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- For the first time in 2012 German cinemas may have struck the magic box office benchmark of one billion euro, but the market share of local films dropped to 13.7%

The new year began with a surprise for the German cinema industry. For the first time, its total box office may have reached €1 billion, which would be an all-time record. According to the figures of Rentrak EDI, German box office amounted to €984.9 million for the period from December 29, 2011 to December 30, 2012. The official figures, which also include the later results, will be presented by the German Federal Film Board (FFA) at the beginning of February.

The most popular film for the Germans was the French comedy Untouchable [+see also:
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(photo), which attracted 8.89 million film fans. In second position was Sony Pictures' Skyfall [+see also:
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]
, with 7.44 milion tickets sold. The third biggest success hit of the year was the 3-D animated film Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which opened in the summer and generated 6.63 million viewers.

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While cinema revenues increased by around 9%, cinema attendances grew by around 6% to 126.9 million viewers. Most of the box office hits in Germany were big studio productions, such as Peter Jackson's The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. The only German-language film in the top ten was Constantin Film's culture-clash comedy Turkish For Beginners, with 2.33 million cinemagoers. Bora Dagtekin's comedy about the battles of sexes had started out as a television serie before Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of Constantin Film, brought it onto the big screen. "I am very proud that we have become a home for such an extraordinary talent and hopefully many more of his  films," said Moszkowicz.

More than 1.2 million people went to see the German screwball comedy Rubbeldiekatz by Detlev Buck, who also directed the historical 3-D adventure film Measuring the World [+see also:
trailer
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]
, which was seen by more than half a million moviegoers. The big budget film Cloud Atlas [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile
]
, which was produced by the Berlin-based production outfit X Filme Creative Pool, lured more than a million viewers to the cinema and grossed slightly more than the German family entertainment film Fünf Freunde [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
.

In terms of box office, the preliminary market share of German films dropped from 18.9% in 2011 to 13.7% in 2012.  As measured by the audience, the market share of German films came to 14.5%, but the choice of products has been huge. In 2012, a total of 228 German productions were released theatrically, which is an increase of 12.3% compared with the year before. The growing number of film releases is an ongoing trend so that it becomes especially for smaller films more difficult to find screens and audiences. While a record number of 516 films opened theatrically in Germany in 2012, the ten most successful films grossed more than one third of the total cinema receipts.

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