The European Audiovisual Observatory has published its first report on the production and distribution of documentaries. Authored by Nicolas Edmery for the Observatory, which is part of the Council of Europe and based in Strasbourg, the report provides an overview of the availability and performance of documentaries in both the theatrical and VoD markets. It highlights key market trends, differences between documentaries and live-action works, and examines the most successful documentary themes in cinemas and on VoD platforms.
The report includes admissions data and theatrical releases from 50 markets worldwide (35 European and 15 non-European) covering the period from 2016 to 2025, VoD presence in 31 European countries from 2022 to 2025, and SVoD usage in nine EU countries from 2024 to 2025.
According to the report, worldwide admissions to documentaries remain below pre-pandemic levels, reaching 22 million in 2025, down 37 percent compared with the pre-pandemic average. Worldwide admissions to European documentaries fell by 17 percent to 10 million, compared with a pre-pandemic average of 12 million tickets per year. Nevertheless, this represents a significantly stronger recovery than that of European fiction films.
European documentaries account for 71 percent of documentaries released commercially in cinemas and have represented more than half of global documentary admissions since 2022. This contrasts with the fiction film market, where European films account for just nine percent of admissions. European documentaries, predominantly British productions, also perform strongly on SVoD platforms, accounting for 40 percent of documentary viewing time across the nine EU markets covered by the report, compared with 22 percent for European works in the drama category.
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