Cinema year 2016: a top year, but pity about the plummeting Dutch market share

So was 2016 a good year for movies or not? That depends on what you look at. This afternoon, the Dutch cinema industry announced the results at the Tuschinski theatre, but we already had the most cheerful news at that point. That was, of course, the Golden Globes (best film and best actress) for Elle by Paul Verhoeven, Holland's most successful director. I admit, a bit out of order here, as a French production, but still something with a Dutch sheen.

But now to the annual figures. If you want to capture the result of Dutch cinema in a single number, such as market share in cinemas, 2016 was a dismal year. From a share of over 20% in 2014 and 18% in 2015, it plummeted to less than 12%. So this was where we were at at the autumn consultation were already afraid of. Soof 2 did become the best-attended Dutch film, but still failed to save it at the last minute.

Fortunately, the cinema company does not have to rely solely on Dutch merchandise. Its US share of receipts rose to 76% in 2016. Hajo Binsbergen, board member of the Dutch Film Distributors Association announced that 2016 was a banner year. Total attendance at Dutch cinemas picked up the upward trend after a few years of stagnation. In 2016, cinemas and film theatres welcomed over 34 million visitors, an increase of 3.7% compared to 2015.

Here are the top 10 from last year (number of visitors in brackets):

1. Bridget Jones's Baby (1,191,719)
2. Finding Dory (1,082,766)
3. The Secret Life of Pets (1,024,822)
4. The Jungle Book (967,434)
5. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (874,047)
6. The Revenant (725,565)
7. Zootropolis (675,431)
8. Suicide Squad (574,241)
9. Jason Bourne (565,281)
10. Inferno (561,222)

Unfortunately, and tellingly for this year, no Dutch production in the top 10. Soof 2 only comes 12th.

And these are the five best-attended Dutch films:

1. Soof 2 (542,036)
2. Skirt Day (401,649)
3. Woezel and Pip: The Movie (225,446)
4. Kneeling on a bed of pansies (223,918)
5. Bon Bini Holland (189,956)

This is with the note that Bon Bini Holland had also attracted 557,000 visitors in 2015.

The success story

As the main driver behind increased cinema attendance, Binsbergen cited the fact that there has been significant investment across the board - from cinema chains to small movie theatres. Over 50 new movie theatres were opened in 2016. There are also technological innovations in many places (think IMAX and Dolby Cinema) that provide even more experience.

The 'sequel slump'

Internationally, with that 3.7% increase, the Netherlands even compares favourably with America, where total cinema attendance in 2016 was almost the same as in 2015. But consider this: the average American goes to the cinema 3.7 times a year, the Dutch exactly twice.

Looking at the top 10, one sees the now familiar image of big animation productions alongside action and adventure films, with Bridget Jones's Baby as the only romantic comedy at the top. Four or maybe five from this list are like sequels (sequel films) to be considered. That, too, is something we will continue to see in the coming years because much of the US film industry leans on that formula. Even though alarming reports appeared in the English-language trade press last summer about the so-called 'sequel slump' - many sequels recorded disappointing results - such a business strategy is not easily reversed. If only because an often hundreds of millions blockbuster has a production time of many years.

Tired of Dutch films?

Why are audiences no longer warming to homegrown product? That's a question on the minds of many - producers, Film Fund, exhibitors, journalists - but I haven't heard a clear answer yet. Have audiences had enough of the sometimes too conveniently finished romcom formula? I wonder, considering last year's No 1 and No 2. Are there just less good and talked-about films being made? Possibly, as colleagues who had to determine the press award at the Netherlands Film Festival were already grumbling about that. The Film Fund hopes to provide a quality boost with more money for fewer titles. We hope it works. It could also be that it's just a coincidence, and the market share shoots up when another mega-success like Gooische vrouwen 2 emerges.

What are we looking forward to in 2017?

I'll mention a few titles off the top of my head. No, not The Mummy. This new imagining of an old genre classic is undoubtedly going to be big with Tom Cruise. I already had more than enough of the trailer presented today, which promises brain-killing spectacle.

But this week we can already go to Martin Koolhoven's feminist western Brimstone, a wonderful homage to an un-Dutch genre, and entirely in its own quirky Koolhoven way.

An impressive and gripping drama is also the one set in Miami's black community Moonlight, about growing up, being rejected and adapting, and about love. In cinemas at the end of January. High expectations I have of the already acclaimed grief drama Manchester By the Sea.

Jim Jarmusch is a name that evokes nostalgic feelings among arthouse lovers. Paterson (9 February), his latest, about a poetic bus driver, is, according to some, his best. And for those angling for something completely different, there is the stylishly dark Korean thriller The Handmaiden (Feb 2) by the illustrious Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). So much for my suggestions for a rich film start to 2017.