WIPO and Omdia presented data from the creative industry, in the report related to the comprehensive Global Innovation Index (GII), which is considered one of the most relevant indicators for various spheres of the creative industry. The GII offers indicators related to the number of national feature films, but also others related to data in the film, TV and media sectors, including film production, theatrical distribution and cinema exhibitions. The analysis goes in the direction of the impact on products around the world after the pandemic period, but also towards new connections between film and other sectors.

In addition to various tabular presentations related to statistics from previous years and decades, forecasts are also given. One such forecast is that future movie theater revenues will be boosted by new movies based on toys or games (for example, Mario Bros. and Transformers). Accordingly, intellectual property rights in toys and video games will be an important source of new content creation. A significant increase in new forms of original theatrical content is also expected, including live touring concerts (as was the case with singer Taylor Swift’s “THE ERAS Tour”).

The rise of IP content and their increased “influence” in the film industry is also evidenced by the analysis that was previously published by Deloitte. It predicts that the share of cinema box office revenue from IP video games will double by 2025, and that more and more film productions originate from the world of video games, blurring the lines between the world of games and cinema. Younger generations especially contribute to this as an audience that favors breaking the boundaries between traditional media and their previous division into film and video heroes.

The fact that Super Mario Brothers was the most successful movie about video games ever shows how valuable the bond between ‘games’ and film is, and its release has contributed to an enormous increase in Nintendo’s revenues, as much as 1.3 billion dollars. Before that, no movie adaptation of a video game had ever crossed $500 million at the box office.

On that wave, Electronic Arts cited its game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as one of the two main ‘culprits’ for its significantly increased quarterly earnings. Similar success follows Sony’s game series The Last of Us, which became a huge serial hit on the Home Box Office (HBO) platform last year. And in parallel, Netflix launched its mobile gaming offering, which included video games based on movies and series from its streaming titles.

All these parameters indicate that stories (narratives), promotions and actors are important for both worlds (film and video games), which is reflected in the fact that production studios strive to monetize their most valuable and successful content through cinemas and interactive universes. IP games drive revenue at the box office, on the one hand, which potentially brings more and more people to the game, on the other, opening up spaces for other adaptations and sequels.

The global state of cinema after the pandemic: ranking by country

GII again places India at the top of the list when it comes to film production, where it is pointed out that the number of films made in one year (2022) has reached a record + 679 productions. Japan also recorded a rise with +144, Turkey with +111, as well as Spain with +49. However, the highest rate of decrease in film shootings is in the United States of America (-109), followed by China (-80), as well as France (-57).

Indian Bollywood recorded almost 2,500 films in 2022 alone, which is 29% of the total world production. A third of that amount was shot by Hollywood (about 835), which globally positions it in second place in terms of production in the world, and for now unpublished statistics from 2024 indicate that the number of films in Hollywood is in even greater decline. 

In third place is extremely advanced Japan, which is taking an increasing percentage of the total share in the world of film, and the screen adaptation of popular ‘anime’ productions is particularly significant in this sense. China is in fourth place – it remains very strong as a local production, with not so much ‘export’ of films.

The remaining 20 places, according to the Global Innovation Index, are occupied by middle-income countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, the Philippines and Iran. However, when it comes to the number of films made in relation to the number of inhabitants of the country in Europe – Iceland leads, followed by Switzerland, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg. 

African soil is interesting in terms of its parameters, and the country’s record jumps in film productions. Thus, Morocco leads the way by quadrupling the number of films produced in four years. And it is followed by Egypt and South Africa.

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