Last year, 2004, was a strong year for global box office revenues, led by spectacular growth in emerging markets, according to ScreenDigest. Total revenues increased 8.8% in US dollar values, to $20.7 bln, in the 25 territories analysed with final or provisional year-end results. Of the total, international box office revenues (excluding US/Canada) accounted for the majority (50.8%) of revenues in 2004, the only time this benchmark has been achieved over the past three years. Another major trend in 2004 was the declining share of the North American market, which dropped 4.1% to represent 49.2% of revenues in 2004.
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Global box office revenues |
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| Box office revenues, mln. $ |
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| Country | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | Change, 2004/2003, % |
Share in 2004, % |
| China | 109.9 | 120.8 | 181.2 | 50.0 | 0.9 |
| Argentina | 50.8 | 61.4 | 91.3 | 46.7 | 0.4 |
| Poland | 86.2 | 83.3 | 126.5 | 42.6 | 0.6 |
| Taiwan | 149.2 | 124.8 | 178.5 | 38.7 | 0.9 |
| Russia | 112.0 | 194.7 | 267.2 | 28.8 | 1.3 |
| Brasil | 181.3 | 210.4 | 262.1 | 18.5 | 1.3 |
| Mexico | 432.6 | 434.6 | 505.0 | 16.4 | 2.4 |
| France | 966.0 | 1,131.8 | 1,430.5 | 15.0 | 6.9 |
| Italy | 496.3 | 592.2 | 718.3 | 10.3 | 3.5 |
| Singapore | 59.7 | 62.9 | 71.0 | 9.6 | 0.3 |
| Spain | 591.7 | 723.5 | 855.9 | 7.6 | 4.1 |
| Israel | 58.5 | 70.3 | 76.4 | 7.3 | 0.4 |
| Hong Kong | 116.4 | 111.2 | 117.7 | 5.9 | 0.6 |
| Hungary | 42.6 | 45.4 | 53.1 | 5.6 | 0.3 |
| Germany | 907.6 | 961.8 | 1,110.6 | 5.0 | 5.3 |
| Australia | 459.3 | 564.4 | 668.2 | 4.8 | 3.2 |
| Ireland | 85.4 | 110.3 | 126.5 | 4.3 | 0.6 |
| Japan | 1,571.5 | 1,752.7 | 1,950.2 | 3.8 | 9.4 |
| UK | 1,134.4 | 1,212.5 | 1,410.7 | 3.7 | 6.8 |
| Czech | 28.9 | 38.4 | 43.0 | 2.0 | 0.2 |
| US | 9,519.6 | 9,488.5 | 9,530.0 | 0.4 | 45.8 |
| Norway | 88.5 | 115.1 | 118.7 | -1.8 | 0.6 |
| Canada | 613.2 | 677.2 | 699.1 | -4.1 | 3.4 |
| Estonia | 5.5 | 5.8 | 6.0 | -6.0 | 0.0 |
| Netherlands | 147.5 | 184.7 | 188.2 | -7.3 | 0.9 |
| Total | 18,014.5 | 19,078.6 | 20,785.9 | ||
| Source: ScreenDigest | |||||
China represented the fastest growing territory in 2004, with a substantial 50.0% increase in local currency to 1.5 bln yuan ($181.2 mln), but still accounting for a only fractional 0.9% of world revenues. This was closely followed by Argentina, where total revenues rose 46.7% on the back of a major recovery from the economic crisis that also devastated the film industry in 2001. In fact, all Central and South American territories surveyed here had double digit increases in 2004. In Central Europe, Poland was the largest growth market with a 42.6% growth rate, ahead of emerging market Russia, which was also in the top five box office winners with an annual increase of around 30% to $267.4 mln.