According to a trade association, COVID-19 cost European theatres "at least" $20 billion in income between 2020 and 2021.
According to a survey produced by the International Union of Cinema, movie theatres in the European Union and the United Kingdom lost an estimated multi-billion dollar income in the first year of the epidemic.
According to the data from its annual report, which was seen by the Hollywood Reporter and released at the start of the CineEurope conference in Barcelona, which runs from June 20 to 23, health measures such as forced closures, face masks, and reduced capacity hampered the sector's financial prospects.
Before the pandemic-induced drop to $2.8 billion in 2020, the sector reached a high of $9.3 billion in revenue in 2019. Last year, the continent's income increased by 40% to $3.9 billion, but it still represents a 70% shortfall compared to two years earlier.
Because 480 films were released in 2019, the report's findings showed that a smaller pool of movies may have provided a barrier to higher income.
Only 250 new titles were released the next year, and only 270 the following year. Only five films - "No Time to Die," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Dune," "F9," and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" - accounted for 98 million tickets in 2021, a fraction of the total of 589 million.
The commerce organisation expects 432 million visitors in 2020, up from 1.347 billion in 2019.
The UNIC remained optimistic about the future of cinema in Europe and the United Kingdom as Hollywood and other film markets boosted their output in response to growing demand and weakened constraints.
They cited a Gower Street Analytics forecast that box office receipts in the area might reach $8.1 billion in 2022, a 62 percent rise over last year and a possible return to 2019 levels.