Total film industry expenditure in 2017 again exceeds HUF 100 billion

Published: 13 September 2018

The total Hungarian filmmaking expenditure amounted to HUF 108.2 billion in 2017 and has already reached HUF 44 billion in the first six months of the present year according to the registries of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH). Valami Amerika 3 produced the greatest box-office results in the first quarter of 2018, whilst Testről és lélekről (On Body and Soul) was a hit at art house cinemas throughout the first six months.

Total film expenditure remains high in 2017

Following 2016, the film industry expenditure of Hungary again exceeded HUF 100 billion in the previous year. Based on the registries of the NMHH’s National Film Office, the total film industry expenditure amounted to HUF 108.2 billion in 2017 and already reached 44 HUF billion by July of this year, which significantly exceeds the amounts of HUF 56.4 billion in 2014 and HUF 54.2 billion in 2013. Last year, 285 and this year, 144 film productions were registered in the country, which includes foreign films, co-productions and Hungarian works.

A significant amount, HUF 20.8 billion was spent by the creators of American series The Alienist, starring Daniel Brühl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning. The thriller Red Sparrow, starring Jennifer Lawrence, was also shot in Hungary, for which they spent a total of HUF 11.3 billion, whilst the recently released The Spy Who Dumped Me – with Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon – had a budget of HUF 9 billion.

DIRECT FILM PRODUCTION COSTS IN HUNGARY
 2017Q1-Q2 2018
piece(in HUF billion)piece(in HUF billion)
Contract work in total 64 90.12 34 38
Hungarian co-produced films in total 6 7.36 2 0.92
Hungarian films in total 215 10.76 108 5.1
Grand total 285 108.2 144 44

Over HUF 20 billion was spent in the cinema in 2017

According to the reports of film distributors, Hungarian cinemas had a total of 15.1 million visitors, which exceeded the audience numbers of 14.6 million in 2016 by approximately half a million viewers. Parallel to the audience, of course, ticket revenues also rose: last year, their gross amount approximated HUF 20.9 billion (2016: HUF 19.8 billion). In 2017, the average ticket price showed a minimum increase to HUF 1,375.5 from HUF 1,357 in 2016. The greatest turnover at the box office was again realized in July and December of last year, which adheres to the tendencies of the previous years. They registered 1.49 million visitors in the summer month along with 1.88 million in the final month of the year, the latter of which shows an increase from 1.63 million visitors in December 2016.

This year, 3.8 million people visited the cinema in the first quarter, which is nearly 300 thousand more than early last year (3.57 million), while the second quarter yielded only slightly higher numbers (2017: 3.41 million, 2018: 3.48 million).

Most popular films in Hungarian cinemas
Q1 2018Q2 2018
MovieNumber of viewersMovieNumber of viewers
Valami Amerika 3 349 213 Avengers: Infinity War 566 330
Fifty Shades Freed 261 135 Deadpool 2 374 344
Black Panther 256 853 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 339 495
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 244 822 Solo: A Star Wars Story 238 524
Peter Rabbit 156 893 Ready Player One 124 109
Star Wars: The Last Jedi 156 786 A Quiet Place 114 175
Red Sparrow 143 269 Book Club 110 666
Ferdinand 130 448 Life of the Party 110 101
Tomb Raider 119 804 Rampage 82 970
The Darkest Hour 118 167 Ocean’s 8 82 365

Hungarian films again amongst the most popular features

Based on the aggregated data from Q1-Q2 of 2018, Avengers: Infinity War was the top-selling film at domestic box offices with 566 thousand tickets sold, followed by Deadpool 2 (374 thousand) and Valami Amerika 3 (370 thousand). When separately examining Q1 and Q2, the first quarter was led by the Hungarian production with 349 thousand viewers, followed by Fifty Shades Freed with 261 thousand and Black Panther with 256 thousand viewers. Avengers won over Q2 with 566 thousand viewers, with Deadpool 2 (374 thousand viewers) as the silver medalist, followed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom with 339 thousand viewers. The popularity of Hungarian films was already mirrored by the statistics from Q4 2017, when A Viszkis (The Whiskey Robber) took third place with 270 thousand viewers.

In art house cinemas, Q1 was dominated by a Hungarian film, Testről és Lélekről (On Body and Soul) with 25 thousand viewers, followed by The Darkest Hour (24 thousand viewers) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (22 thousand viewers). The big winner of Q2, Avengers: Infinity War (14 thousand visitors) came in the seventh place in art house cinemas over Q1-Q2. Hungarian films were continuously listed amongst the top films of art house cinemas in the previous year. For example, in Q2 the four most frequently viewed films were Hungarian works: Kincsem (Kincsem - Bet on Revenge) (32 thousand viewers, 1945 (20 thousand viewers), Testről és lélekről (On Body and Soul) (19 thousand viewer) and Brazilok (Brazilians) (9.5 thousand viewers), whilst in Q4, Hungarian films took the first six places on the list – with two exceptions – with Aurora Borealis at the top of the list, selling 30 thousand tickets.

Detailed lists and statistics are featured in the Motion Picture Registries on the NMHH website.