EUROPEAN TV PAYING BILLIONS FOR HOLLYWOOD MOVIES

Hollywood has found a new, lucrative market for its motion pictures: European television stations. Today’s (Wednesday) Hollywood Reporter provides details of a new study, Imported Feature Films on European TV, which lists the largest sellers (by hours) as, in order: Warner Bros., Universal, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, and Sony. Those studios, the report indicated, accounted “for 71 percent of the revenues generated from imported feature films in 2011.” Warner Bros. alone grossed $769.4 million from TV outlets in 21 European territories, while second-place Universal grabbed $491.5 million. Germany was the biggest buyer, the report observed, spending $1 billion on Hollywood movies. Italy came in second with $711 million.