Europeans are still crazy for their soccer, but record TV ratings for the Euro 2024 championships haven’t had a major impact on the box office.
This past weekend saw second-round matches for Euro 2024 pull in huge audiences across most of Europe’s biggest markets, with the U.K., Italy and Spain recording best-ever figures for the tournament. ITV scored big with its coverage of England’s dramatic Sunday night match against Slovakia, with a peak of 18.4 million viewers tuning in.
The match ended in fairytale fashion for the Three Lions, with Jude Bellingham scoring a highlight-reel-worthy bicycle kick goal in the 95th minute to send the match into extra time. Captain Harry Kane’s 2-1 winner sealed the deal for England, which now advance into the quarter-finals. ITV’s audience was a good 3 million more than watched England’s last match of the tournament, against Slovenia, and the biggest TV audience on any channel in the U.K. for 18 months. ITV’s audience share was 66 percent of total viewers and 89 percent of the 16-34 demographic.
Spain’s more perfunctory, but still dazzlingly impressive, 4-1 win over Georgia on Saturday was also an audience favorite, with just over 9 million, 60.3 percent of the total viewership, tuning in on La 1, making it the most-watched match of the tournament in Spain, and the most-watched show in Spain since the world cup final between Argentina and France on December 18, 2022.
In Italy, 11.7 million viewers, 64.3 percent of the national TV audience, watched in horror on public network Rai as the defending European champions got booted out of Euro 2024 in a 2-0 loss to Switzerland.
Figures in host nation Germany, which coasted past Denmark 2-0 to set up a quarter-final face-off with Spain, were off the tournament peak, but still impressive. 23.6 million, watched the Saturday evening match on public broadcaster ZDF, a 76.8 percent share.
The actual viewership figures for all matches are significantly higher, as millions more caught the matches at bars, restaurants, and public viewing venues across Europe.
Despite this, box office returns in Europe held up, thanks mainly to Inside Out 2. The Disney/Pixar animated sequel continues to pull in family audiences across the continent, acting as the perfect counter program for the sports-challenged or soccer-saturated. The film held onto the number one spot in its third weekend in the U.K. and Germany and in its sophomore frame in Italy and Spain. The total take for the film in the U.K., according to analysts comscore, is $40.7 million, in Italy $32 million, $25.5 million in Spain and $24 million in Germany.
Overall box office revenue for the weekend was down in some territories compared to the same frame last year —the U.K. box office take was $16.18 million against $17.8 million for the weekend of June 30, 2023, Germany’s $9.2 million overall gross compared to $10.85 million from last year — but up in others, with the total take in Italy at $8.6 million against $4.9 million for the equivalent weekend last year, and Spain up from $4.9 million to $8 million. The declines could also be attributed to the lack of big new releases this past frame, as most studios avoided going head-to-head with the soccer, holding back their tentpoles until the tournament’s final whistle on July 14. This time last year, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was going wide across Europe.
The one high-profile title debuting, Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 did not fare well. Warner Bros. released the first entry in the Western epic in the U.K. and Ireland to a dismal $190,000, and grossed just $110,000 in Spain, according to comscore. But given how poorly Horizon performed in the U.S., it’s hard to blame it on the soccer.
With Italy out of the Euros, TV viewership there should dip significantly in the quarter-finals. Broadcasters elsewhere — Spain and Germany facing each other in the first quarter-final match-up on Friday, followed by France vs. Portual, with England vs. Switzerland on Saturday — can expect another ratings bonanza.
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