With audiences getting pickier brand recognition helps auteurs and animators alike.
A producer or exporter of Asian films might look longingly at Europe’s great A-list festivals in Cannes, Berlin or Venice, where a diverse array of films is cherished and put on an equal-opportunity pedestal.
But he/she may be simultaneously frustrated that the chance of converting that acclaim and opportunity into box office success in Europe is barely 3%.
Historical data shows that Asian films account for only a thin sliver of Europe’s in-cinema consumption and the 3% figure is actually an overstatement or shorthand that includes all non-US, non-European titles. Within Europe, US films accounted for 62% of ticket sales in 2024, according to figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO). European titles accounted for 33%. All other films – Latin American, African, Indian and East Asian – together mustered just 3.3% of admissions.
The figure is scarcely different from the US, which is sometimes compared to a fortress, one that is dominated by Hollywood’s vertically integrated entertainment colossuses and protected by American audiences’ frustrating aversion to both dubbing and sub-titling. In 2024, local movies accounted for a 95% share of the North American market, European films just 2% and the “others”, a familiar 3%.
From other angles, Asian films may not be doing so badly.
To make the list of top 50 films worldwide in 2024 required EUR100 million of revenue. Of those, 36 were US movies, 9 were from China / HK, 5 were from Japan or India. And none were European. The same year, 2024, Asian films failed to rank among the top 25 films in Europe. But then again, only two from Europe managed the feat, the other 23 being US-made.
Moreover, cinemagoing in Europe is struggling to grow. While research firm Gower Street Analytics predicts 7% revenue growth in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region in 2026, that forecast uptick follows declines (in admissions and revenues) in both 2024 and 2025 in Europe, according to the EAO. (N.B. The geographical definitions are different.)
So, what are Asian films chances at the European box office?
While the early years of the 21st century (and not long after the establishment of FEFF) held out the prospect of great success for mainstream Asian movies – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Taiwan, 2000, 9.34 million spectators), Hero (China, 2002, 3.6 million spectators), House of Flying Daggers (China, 2004, 2.51 million spectators), In the Mood for Love (Hong Kong, 2000, 2.23 million spectators), Ong Bak (Thailand, 2003, 1.67 million spectators), Oldboy (Korea, 2003, 626,000 spectators), Spirited Away (Japan, 2001, 3.40 million spectators – the difficult reality is that the following years have seen European audience enthusiasm for Asian films ebb and flow.
Interestingly, in the 21st century, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong films enjoyed their most successful run in Europe immediately after the turn of the century, in the moment between liberalisation and the full-scale industrialisation of the mainland industry.
In the 2010-2020 period, the Chinese films with the greatest success in Europe were all coproductions, led by Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall (China-US, 2016, 5.17 million spectators) and was followed by four others with western directors Wolf Totem (China-France, 2015, dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud), A Dog’s Way Home (China-US, 2019, dir. Charles Martin Smith), Duck Duck Goose (China-US-UK, 2018, dir. Christopher Jenkins) and UglyDolls (China-Canada-US, 2019, dir. Kelly Asbury).
Korean films burst onto the global festival scene in spectacular fashion in the early 2000s too, with Peppermint Candy, The Isle, JSA, Memories of Murder grabbing headlines and prizes aplenty for breakout new directors Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ki-duk, Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho respectively. Park’s 2003 Oldboy is a cult classic and regularly appears on film fans’ list of favourites but, despite releases and re-releases in 27 territories, has a good but not great total of 625,000 ticket sales, suggesting that most viewing has been at home on TV, DVD or streaming. France, Italy and Portugal are its strongest markets.
But, outside of France, it took many years for Korean films to overcome their shock factor and move beyond the DVD racks into mainstream European cinemas. Helped by its multiple Oscars, Parasite remains a high point with theatrical releases in 34 European territories and 9.46 million spectators.
Japanese cinema, which has been winning Palmes d’Or since the early days of the Cannes festival, emerges as by far the most successful Asian flavour among European cinemagoers. The EU’s Lumiere database shows Japan, mainland China and Korea each with more than 200 films released in European cinemas in the 2015-2026 period, but Japan’s ticket sales total is greater than the scores for China and Korea combined.
Japan’s auteurs Kore-eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters in 2018 was his biggest European success, with 1.82 million ticket sales), Kawase Naomi (Sweet Bean, 2015, 819,000 ticket sales) along with Kitano Takeshi and Kurosawa Kiyoshi were significant draws in the early part of the century. Latterly they were joined by Hamaguchi Ryusuke (Drive My Car, 2021, 670,000 ticket sales).
But it is Japan’s anime franchises (Dragon Ball, One Piece, Demon Slayer), that have provided repeat business and accelerating growth. Of Japan’s top ten titles in Europe, seven are animation films and five are franchise instalments. And seven are post-2020 releases.
“There are still lots of [Asian] films being released, but not many have much impact these days”, says Cedric Behrel, who heads Trinity Entertainment, from the UK and releases films in the UK, Ireland and Benelux, and with the company’s CineAsia unit has a track record of handling Chinese commercial movies. “Nobody goes to the cinema just to pass the time. So, success, more specifically than before, is down to the type of film you have and how connected it is to a defined audience.”
That may explain the emergence of distributors like UK-based Central City Media catering to the growing Hong Kong diaspora – and beyond, if possible. The company’s MD, Sophie Wong says: “It is my mission to explain the breadth of Hong Kong cinema.” Her recent lineup reflects exactly that, including theatrical titles Where the Wind Blows, The Way We Talk and Papa as well as the rare Hong Kong-made animation Another World.
There is hope for those Asian auteurs who can build a brand with meaning for European audiences. Growing numbers of ticket sales for Park Chan-wook clearly suggest that he has managed that feat. So too, Japan’s Hamaguchi after he made his Cannes debut with Asako I & II in 2018.
Hong Kong’s Wong Kar Wai has not released a new movie in Europe since The Grandmaster in 2013, but the multiple re-releases and recent restoration of his In the Mood for Love, suggest that despite his absence, Wong’s name has not faded from European consciousness.
Other auteurs have remained active, but on the downslope. Japan’s Kitano won his Golden and Silver Lions in Venice in 1997 (Hana-bi) and 2003 (Zatoichi), but he has not had a film sell more than 45,000 tickets in more than two decades.
Social media and online sites now dominate film discovery among digital natives. Letterboxd has become arguably become more influential than Sight and Sound and its list of 250 greatest films skews considerably younger.
“The big swingers of the Letterboxd list hail mostly from Asia, not Europe, led by Akira Kurosawa (five films), Masaki Kobayashi (four) Bong Joon-ho (three) Hayao Miyazaki (two) Edward Yang (two) and Park Chan-wook (two). The centre of gravity shifted east from Henri Langlois’ Cinémathèque Française to Tokyo’s Shin-Bungeiza cinema in Toshima city, about midway through Japanese cinema’s second Golden Age in the 1990s,” wrote The UK’s Guardian newspaper in December 2024 after painfully explaining that Gen Z regards the French New Wave, Godard and Truffaut all as “ancient history.”
So, while there can be no easy formula in filmmaking, the most promising roads to success in Europe for Asian filmmakers these days may be animation and brand-name auteurs. Better still those filmmakers who can claim to be both: Miyazaki Hayao, whose The Boy and the Heron was the highest scoring non-American animation of 2024, Suzume director Shinkai Makoto and Scarlet and Belle director Hosoda Mamoru.
Patrick Frater