 European films have had their worst year in nearly a decade. Only a limited number have been able to attract audiences beyond their national borders.
According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, a mere 6.3 per cent ofadmissionsto European films were in EU countries outside their home markets, a decrease from nearly 10 per cent last year. Interest in European films is alsodwindlingin America, where they took a market share of 3.3 per cent in 2003. The spyspoofJohnny English and the romantic comedy Love Actually, both British-American co-productions, were the only "European" films to appear in the European Top 20. They reached eleventh and fourteenth placerespectivelyin an annual ranking topped by the children's animation Finding Nemo, which sold more than 37.7 million tickets. Finding Nemo was followed by The Matrix Reloaded and Pirates of the Caribbean at 31.9 million and 29 million respectively. Johnny English registered 13.8 million admissions, while Love Actually attracted 12.6 million. Even European films as critically acclaimed as Good Bye Lenin!, the German comedy about a family forced to pretend that the Berlin Wall had not fallen, and Calendar Girls, about a group of Women's Institute members whostrippedfor charity, sold only 9.2 million and 5.1 million tickets respectively throughout Europe. In contrast, American films increased their domination by 1.6 per cent, accounting for more than 72 per cent of the EU market. The first two films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy attracted more than 54 million admissions. The observatory, which was set up as a public-service body in Strasbourg in 1992, is the only centre of its kind to gather andcirculateinformation on the audiovisual industry in Europe. Its report, European Cinema Trends 2003, concludes: "2003 was the worst year for the circulation of European films since 1996, the first year for which detailed analysis is available. Only a limited number of European films can be described as having real popular potential beyond their national borders." It estimates that 954 million tickets were sold in the 25 EU member states in 2003, 45 million fewer than in 2002. Production volume across the 25 countries increased by 3 per cent in 2003, with 752 European films shot last year. (Agencies)
| 欧洲电影业经历了近十年来最不景气的一年。仅有为数不多的几部电影能够吸引本国以外的观众。 根据欧洲电影观察组织的统计，欧洲电影的票房收入中仅有6.3%来自国内市场之外的欧盟国家，这比去年下降了近10%。美国观众对欧洲电影的兴趣也在不断减少，2003年，欧洲电影在美国电影市场份额只有3.3%。 由英美联合拍摄的描述特工的喜剧片《憨豆特工》和浪漫爱情喜剧《真爱至上》是唯一入选20部欧洲最佳电影的“欧洲”影片。这两部影片在年度电影排行榜上分列第11和第14位，名列榜首的是儿童动画片《海底总动员》，它售出了3770多万张门票。排在《海底总动员》之后的是电影《骇客帝国2：重装上阵》和《加勒比海盗》，它们分别售出了3190万和2900万张门票。《憨豆特工》的观众有1380万，《真爱至上》吸引了1260万名观众。 即使备受称赞的欧洲影片《再见列宁》和影片《日历女孩》在整个欧洲也仅售出了920万和510万张门票。《再见列宁》是一部德国喜剧片，讲述了一个家庭不得不假装柏林墙没有倒塌的故事。《日历女孩》讲述的是女子学院的一群学生为了慈善而拍摄裸体日历的故事。 相反，美国电影进一步巩固了它们在欧盟电影市场的主导地位，它们在欧盟电影市场所占的份额增加了1.6%，超过了72%。《指环王》三部曲的前两部吸引了5400多万名观众。 欧洲电影观察组织是一个公共服务组织，1992年在法国斯特拉斯堡成立，它是本行业中唯一一个收集和传播欧洲电影产业信息的中心。它发表的一篇报道《2003年欧洲电影趋势》断言：“2003年是自1996年以来欧洲电影发行最糟糕的一年。能够在国外称得上具有真正受欢迎潜力的电影为数不多。” 该组织估计，2003年欧盟25个成员国总共售出95400万张电影门票，比2002年减少了4500万张。2003年，整个欧盟25个成员国的电影出品总量与去年的752部电影相比增加了3%。 admissions: 门票
dwindle: 减少
spoof: 哄骗
respectively: 分别地
strip: 脱掉衣服
circulate: 传播 （中国日报网站译）
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Updated: 2004-05-13 01:00
