FPD Savills' survey found that Europe is now making the same mistake as the US, with new multiplex screens being built faster than older cinemas are closing. In the UK, the number of screens grew by 26% over the last three years, while total admissions grew by just 2.6%.
The success of building expensive, cinema multiplexes relies heavily on high attendance figures and pounds spent per capita to make them profitable, warns the report, and unless either income or the speed of closures increases some markets will be drastically oversupplied.
'The prospects for much of the European cinema market depend heavily on closing older screens, improving efficiency, and ensuring that the right product is delivered to their local markets,' says Mat Oakley, head of commercial research at FPD Savills. 'Without significant belt-tightening the spectre of US-style collapses is a very real one for Europe,' he warns.
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