'Avengers: Endgame' Helps Revive Tepid German Box Office

Revenue for the first half of 2019 was up 5 percent to $512.4 million, with U.S. films accounting for 55 percent of total ticket sales.

Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame helped revive, somewhat, a sickly German box office.

Theatrical revenue in the first six months of the year in Germany was up 5 percent to $512.4 million (€461.5 million), thanks in large part to the final Avengers film, which grossed $64 million in the territory, making it by far the most successful title so far this year.

Ticket sales also nudged up 5.1 percent to 2.6 million sold in the first half, an improvement on the same, even more dismal, period in 2018, which saw the German box office plunge 15 percent year-over-year.

While Avengers: Endgame topped the German charts, Hollywood films actually lost ground in the territory, as measured by overall admissions. U.S. titles accounted for 71.2 percent of all tickets sold in German in the first half of 2017, but that figure fell to 64.8 percent over the same period last year. In the first six months of this year, U.S. films accounted for only 28.4 million tickets sold in Germany, just 54.8 percent of the total.

Local German movies continued to hold their appeal, accounting for 12 million admissions, or 23.1 percent of the total for the first half.

3D movies, once hailed as the savior of the theatrical business, appear on their way out in Germany: 8.7 million tickets were sold for 3D screenings in the first half of 2019, just 16.9 percent of the total and the lowest level since 3D technology was introduced in mid-2009.