The International Union of Cinemas (UNIC) has published its preliminary estimates for 2022 box office and admissions across Europe and the United Kingdom, the territories that it covers. The Brussels based cinema trade body reported a significant recovery across all countries compared to the COVID lows of 2020 and 2021. The official tally will be released this spring.

Overall admissions grew by at least 36.5% and total box office for the year is expected to exceed EUR €5.6 billion (USD $6 billion), once figures are finalised, representing an increase of 55.6% in Europe compared with 2021. Most European Union countries have yet to see attendance return to the averages measured between 2017 and 2019. Last year was off by 34.5% from this pre-pandemic period, accounting for an estimated loss of 338.9 admissions.

Hollywood films made a lions share of the box office in the EU throughout last year, and one reason the market didn’t recover more was due to a lack of such releases. Instead, locally produced films helped flesh out the release schedule in regions like France (40.9% of market share), Czech Republic (33.5%), Denmark (26%) and Finland (25.2%).