US films traditionally have a significant presence at box offices in the European markets. Typically, a European blockbuster or high-grossing film is recognized as such in just 1.2 European markets on average, compared to a US blockbuster, which is successful in 6.7 European markets, a disparity often attributed to US blockbusters being based on well-known international franchises or ‘brands’, as opposed to the locally embedded content of European blockbusters (EAO, 2023). In 2022, almost 70% of admissions to European films stemmed from low-grossing and mid-tier films (EAO, 2023).

There is a considerable presence of US audiovisual productions in CresCine markets (see: Admissions and market shares) and the large markets analysed. According to the CNC, in 2022 US studio films generated most of the cinema admissions in France (53.1%), Spain (74.5%), UK and Ireland (88.4%), Germany (72.3%), and Italy (68.5%). The substantial representation of US audiovisual works (both films and series) is also visible in VoD services (Greece, 2022). In 2022, US works took the lion’s share with 49% of all works in VoD catalogues compared to 32% works of European origin (EAO, 2023). In addition, one third of all SVoD (38%) and TVoD (34%) services in Europe belong to a US company (EAO, 2023).

Production budgets of US films surpass the average budget of films made in the CresCine markets. In 2020, the average budget of a fiction film in large European markets amounted to €2.7 million; in medium-sized markets, the average feature budget was €1.6 million; and in small European markets, the median budget for a fiction film was €1.2 million (Fioroni, 2024). In 2021, of all 943 US features produced, 23.9% had budgets over €13.6 million, 49.8% films had production costs between €0.9 million and €13.5 million, while 26.1% had budgets below €0.9 million (MPAA, 2022). According to Kuehn and Lampe (2023), US low-budget films have an average budget of €8.9 million, with mid-budget and high-budget films made in the same country having an average production cost of €42 million and €141 million respectively.

The European Audiovisual Observatory reports that the US audiovisual sector value is worth approximately €180 billion, in contrast to Europe’s €120 billion (with EU27 countries accounting for €88 billion of this figure) (EAO, 2023). Comparing the US audiovisual sector to some of the large European markets denotes considerable differences in magnitude. For example, the value of the audiovisual sector of the two largest markets, Germany and the UK, is €23 billion and €22 billion, respectively. This reflects the expenditure per capita on audiovisual content, as US and Japanese citizens still spend more (directly and indirectly through advertising and public funding) than Europeans, with the UK being an exception (EAO, 2023).