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European Children's Film Association
Association Européenne du Cinéma pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse

ECFA’s Survey on Children’s Film Distribution in Europe:

Create Promotional Power – Together

by Reinhold T. Schöffel

 

The distribution of high quality films for children in Europe is one of the most important subjects on the agenda of ECFA.This year we have researched the numbers of admission of films for children between 2005 and 2007. Therefore we selected 229 films and tried to list in which countries they were distributed in cinemas and how many admissions they created.

The ten most successful films for
children in Europe (2004 – 2007):

Nr. Title Admissions Countries
1. Shrek 2 44.626.897 27
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 44.291.100 27
3. Ice Age 2 40.794.718 27
4. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban 40.560.018 27
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 39.440.690 24
6. Shrek the Third 36.094.783 24
7. Ratatouille 32.620.566 24
8. The Chronicles of Narnia 1:The Lion, ... 32.318.745 26
9. Madagascar 30.051.878 27
10. Incredibles,The 28.845.195 26

 

When we look at the films that got more than 10 million admissions in European countries we find one European film:Wallace and Gromit:The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on nr. 19 with 13.821.063 admissions. All other 20 films with more than 10 million admissions were produced in USA. This is no surprise so far. In Western Europe these films were all distributed by the US-majors Disney, 20th Century Fox, UIP or Warner Bros. In the Middle and Eastern European countries these majors often give their films to local companies like Baltic Cinema, Bontonfilm (CZ), Intercom (HU), Prooptiki (RO), Tatra Film (SK). In Scandinavia and Finland some majors co-operate with companies like Sandrew Metronome Distribution. But the number of European films for children that were distributed in many other countries is definitely low. In our survey with 229 films there are 161 European productions. Only 15 of them were distributed in more than ten countries:

 

European Films for Children with distribution in more
than ten European Countries (2004 – 2007):

Nr. Title Admissions Countries
1. Wallace and Gromit ... 13.821.063 24
2. Arthur and the Minimoys 7.927.115 19
3. The Emperor’s Journey 5.723.328 26
4. Two Brothers 5.095.574 17
5. Valiant 4.756.880 21
6. Oliver Twist 4.700.490 22
7. Asterix and the Vikings 3.523.376 22
8. The Magic Roundabout 2.587.770 12
9. Kirikou and the Wild Animals 2.226.343 12
10. Raining Cats and Frogs 1.271.109 13
11. Five Children and It 828.487 13
12. Millions 462.391 13
13. Terkel in Trouble 454.245 11
14. Back to Gaya 428.228 12
15. Strings 88.549 14

 

These films made at least half of their total audience in their country of origin and the rest in different European countries. Some of these films were distributed by the European departments of US-major companies, others by bigger European companies like StudioCanal. But almost half of these titles were distributed by independent arthouse distributors. So both big and small distribution companies may be able to organize a successful distribution.

 

European Films for Children with distribution in more than four and up to nine European Countries (2004 – 2007):

Nr Title Admissions Countries
1. The Wild Soccer Bunch 3 2.264.401 5
2. The little Polar Bear, Part 2 –
The Mysterious Island		 1.944.994 7
3. Laura’s Star 1.855.404 8
4. Azur and Asmar 1.759.320 5
5. The Wild Soccer Bunch 2 1.628.953 6
6. Bibi Blocksberg and the Secret of the Blue Owls 1.547.301 5
7. Fourth Floor 1.175.159 6
8. The Thief Lord 1.035.906 5
9. Pettson & Findus 3 - Pettson's Promise 953.681 9
10. The Living Forest 946.962 9
11. The Ugly Duckling and Me 899.014 9
12. Jester Till 872.364 5
13. Lassie 756.225 9
14. El Cid, the Legend 654.283 7
15. Vitus 541.106 5
16. Princes and Princesses 497.339 6
17. Winky's Horse 491.618 5
18. The Rain Children 332.591 5
19. Zozo 307.811 7
20. Zaina, Rider of the Atlas 246.483 6
21. Black Mor's Island 238.589 5
22. Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure 237.923 5
23. Dog, the General and the Birds,The 210.732 5
24. Dear Frankie 159.571 9
25. Renard, the Fox 155.183 5
26. Lotte from Gadgetville 145.442 6
27. Pelican Man 112.893 5
28. Blindflyers 102.121 5
29. Villa Henriette 40.134 5
30. Hop 38.561 5

 

Also some of these films were distributed by major companies, some by smaller arthouse distributors or other independent companies. Here the share of the domestic audience is in a significant way higher than in the top 15 that were distributed in more countries. Usually 80 % of the admissions came from the films’ countries of origin. Exceptions are the British films Dear Frankie and Lassie, but also some animation movies had bigger success not only at home but abroad as well.

The „Local Heroes“

Of course there are many films that were distributed with a good reason only in their country of origin and countries with the same language. These „local heroes“ often are based on books that are mostly famous in their own country, like for example Anna M. G. Schmidt in Dutch language territories or Paul Maar in German language territories. Also here there are exceptions: for example the film Minoes, based on Anna M. G. Schmidt’s book, was so good that Warner Bros. decided to release it in some other countries too – with good results.

Surprises

Some examples for unexpected success: Planta 4a, a touching Spanish black humour drama about a group of boys suffering from cancer was distributed in Spain by Buena Vista (Disney) and made more than 1,1 million admissions, a result that usually only US-Blockbusters have. The film was furthermore released in several other countries by arthouse distributors with results between 3.500 and 13.000 admissions. Despite the fact that Planta 4a did not have the special star power or other promotional advantages in its domestic country the Spanish department of Buena Vista succeeded to create such an awareness for this high quality movie which made this excellent result possible. In other countries the arthouse promotion campaigns obviously failed. But the Spanish example proves, that even such a hard film can be a box office success when the distributor succeeds to create enough promotional power for his product.

That a film like The Blindflyers, which is hard to promote because it is so – in the best meaning of the word – unspectacular, will not be a box office hit everybody knew in advance. But with all the awards that this film won, including the German Film Award for the best film for children, there was hope for more than these 52.000 admission that the film earned during almost five years in the theatres. So the surprise was even better when this film made more than 41.000 in the Netherlands, where it was also distributed by the arthouse distributor Twin Films. Bea Appels, who runs Twin Films together with husband Dick de Jonge explains this success with the special attractiveness of this film for school screenings, that made a good share of all these admissions: „The story, the way it is told, but also the images and the very convincing acting of the young people.“ But Bea Appels also states the fact that The Blindflyers in the Netherlands is still only available in the cinemas. Neither a DVD was released until now nor the film had been shown on TV.

The Living Forest in Belgium, as Felix Vanginderhuysen, manager of Jekino-Distribution remembers, was an unexpected success. It was released on probably the one and only moment during the last years when there was no US-concurrent and because the Belgium release came shortly after the French release. So the French part of Belgium did profit from the promotion in France. In total this film was distributed in nine European countries and gained almost one million admissions.

Conclusions

It is definitely essential to continue the co-operation, that distributors started within ECFA. Together they prepare applications for distribution support, exchange experiences and discuss strategies for new films. The most important aim must be to create the best possible promotional power for new high quality films. Whatever reasons we will find to explain the commercial success or disaster of a particular film: It is surely not only the quality of a film which determines how many children will see a children’s film in the cinemas.

Perhaps more new ideas will come from other old or new ways of distribution. Digital technique makes it easier to distribute films. The borders between the different stages of distribution (cinema, non-theatrical, home-DVD, pay & public TV, online-video) soon will start to disappear. These stages are no longer determined by different technical standards. Films soon can easily be transferred from one format to another.A theatrical release then does not necessarily mean a high risk. A film can be launched step by step or stage by stage. It can be seen whenever there is interest for it – at festivals, in cinemas, schools, film clubs or at home. It can cross borders also without a national distributor. This way the films have the chance to sneak their way to the audience on every possible way. This vision of a multiple and flexible distribution may bring some advantage for arthouse films. Their producers, sales agents and distributors mostly are smaller independent companies who are free to decide where and when they want to present their films. Of course this „Amazon-way of distribution“ (everything is available everywhere) also bears the danger that the big blockbusters will also block the attention of the viewers. But also rare literature finds its way through this system – much more than before. So with our network of film enthusiasts all over Europe working in various organisations on bringing good films to the young audience we will have certain new possibilities and chances to create promotional power for arthouse films for children.

Reinhold T. Schöffel

With contributions by:

Barbara Ammon (MFA+, Germany), Bea Appels (Twin Films, Netherlands), Petra Beltz (Alpha Medienkontor, Germany), Tonje Hardersen (Film&Kino, Norway), Reno Koppe (Farbfilm-Verleih, Germany), Felix Vanginderhuysen (Jekino, Belgium)

The complete statistical Survey can be found on ECFA’s website

 

Sources:

 

 

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They caught the biggest audience among all the films for children that were produced in Europe recently: „Wallace and Gromit:The Curse of the Were-Rabbit“

The complete statistical Survey can be found on ECFA’s website