EU: Bumper year For Cinemas

1997 is likely to be the best year for cinema attendance figures in the EU for a decade. The European Audiovisual Observatory in Strasbourg estimates that audience figures for the EU will reach about 742 million, up by 5.8 per cent over 1996. Spain and Germany have seen the strongest growth in the first half of 1997, up by 13.2 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively. France, the UK and Italy all increased by 4.4 per cent. The only decrease in the 15 EU members was in Belgium, down by 3.1 per cent. In the UK audiences were 49 per cent up in September this year compared with the same month in 1996, according to the Cinema Advertising Association.