The annual APA members‘ financial review in individual fields of the film industry demonstrated a growth in Czech Republic’s film production for five consecutive years. Compared to 2013, Czech production companies that are members of APA showed a revenue increase of 18%. Compared to 2012, the revenue increase for Czech producers grew by 48%. Commissioned productions from abroad and advertising, also primarily from abroad, continue to be the unambiguous workhorses of the Czech film industry. To the contrary, after a couple of succesful years, Czech film and television production by independent producers dropped by a fifth.
In comparision with 2013, Czech production revenue from advertising rose from 1,392 million to 1,960 million Czech Crowns, achieving a 40% increase. The increase is driven not only by improving US, European and Czech economies but also the pro-export and fiscal policy of the Czech National Bank (CNB).
The Czech film industry is gradually becoming competitive again in the sphere of foreign film and television productions, drawn to the Czech Republic through a system of incentives introduced in 2010. Their revenue reached for the first time since the slump of 2004 (the year when Hungary introduced film production incentives), 3,3 billion Czech Crowns, a growth of 18% since 2013. Alongside the aforemetioned pro-export policy of CNB, the main contributing factor was a budgetary increase for film incentives by the State Fund for Cinematography from 300 million Czech Crowns in 2012 to 500 million Czech Crowns in 2013, and to 800 million Czech Crowns in 2014. Beyond the so to speak obvious costs that undergo a thorough audit -- with 20% going back to the foreign producer -- other costs of foreign film companies in the Czech Republic went up to some 12% in revenue, according to a statistic by APA. It is anticipated that fully realized incentives in 2014 could inject as much as 5 billion Czech Crowns into the Czech economy.
The most financially significant foreign film project shot in the Czech Republic last year was the second season of the television series The Musketeers, currently airing on the Czech channel TV Prima. Through the Czech company Czech Anglo Productions, BBC invested more than 600 million Czech Crowns here, while shooting two seasons of its successful series. It became the second most significant „incentive-driven“ television project after The Borgias (ETIC FILMS), whose production brought Czech tax-paying subjects commissions totalling more than 1 billion Czech Crowns.
After four years, the gradual growth in revenue for APA in Czech film and television production fell by almost 20%, from 795 million Czech Crowns in 2013 to 646 million Czech Crowns last year. They did not make a significant break through especially in the area of commissioned or co-produced series in Czech television like last year. Nonetheless, the share of external productions given to external producers in the form of co-productions or commissioned contracts in Czech Television grew again:
Share of external production in Czech Television (does not include sports, news, acquisitions) in 2014:
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
| Share in external productions | 27% | 31% | 39% | 41% | 45% |
(Source: Czech Television)
Still Trending, Czech Cinema
In 2014 Czech movie theatres premiered 263 titles, a small decrease from 2013. Of 56 domestic productions, 31 were feature films (25 in 2013); 24 documentaries (17 in 2013); new premieres of old films included a digitally restored version of Closely Watched Trains. In 2014, 11,558 million people visited Czech movie theatres, half a million more than in the previous year, and signifies approximately a 5% increase. The Union of Film Distributors (UFD) data shows that box office sales reached a record 1,463 billion Czech Crowns, even though the average price of a ticket decreased in comparision to the previous year by almost 2%.
The number of cinemagoers and box office take in 2013 and 2014
| Year | Show | Viewers | Net Take | Average Ticket Price |
| 2013 | 413 251 | 11 057 559 | 1 424 245 647 Kč | 128,80 Kč |
| 2014 | 438 405 | 11 558 586 | 1 462 670 233 Kč | 126,54 Kč |
(Source: Union of film distributors)
It’s become a quasi tradition, that the biggest box office hit tends to be a Czech film, and so it was in 2014, with Jan Sverak’s fairy tale Three Brothers, while three Czech movies made the top 10 box office hits list.
| Movie Results - TOP 10 in 2014 | |||||||
| Title | Distributor | Opening | Prod. | Shows | Viewers | Sales | |
| 1 | Tři bratři/Three Brothers | Bioscop/AQS | 14.8.14 | CZ | 13 077 | 661 378 | 73 549 281 |
| 2 | Hobbit,The: The Battle of … | Warner Bros | 11.12.14 | NZ | 8 225 | 566 694 | 87 368 947 |
| 3 | How to Train Your Dragon 2 | CinemArt | 19.6.14 | US | 11 122 | 423 903 | 56 259 653 |
| 4 | Wolf of Wall Street, The | Bontonfilm | 16.1.14 | US | 5 370 | 297 510 | 41 203 347 |
| 5 | Rio 2 | CinemArt | 10.4.14 | US | 9 156 | 257 765 | 31 405 727 |
| 6 | Babovřesky 2 | Falcon | 20.2.14 | CZ | 6 022 | 245 494 | 31 508 187 |
| 7 | Něžné vlny/Gentle Waves | Falcon | 9.1.14 | CZ | 5 939 | 232 717 | 30 104 929 |
| 8 | Interstellar | Warner Bros | 6.11.14 | US | 5 097 | 231 241 | 32 143 828 |
| 9 | Penguins of Madagascar, The | CinemArt | 27.11.14 | US | 5 848 | 225 767 | 26 365 220 |
| 10 | Transformers: Age of Extinction | CinemArt | 26.6.14 | US | 6 308 | 214 466 | 32 592 478 |
The following table shows the biggest box office hits since 2005. In the last 10 years, a Czech film placed at the top 9 times.
Top box office hits in the Czech Republic from 2005 to 2014
| Year | Title | Number of viewers that year |
| 2014 | Tři bratři | 661 000 |
| 2013 | Babovřesky | 652 000 |
| 2012 | Ice Age 4: Continental Drift | 671 000 |
| 2011 | Muži v naději | 852 000 |
| 2010 | Ženy v pokušení | 1 232 000 |
| 2009 | Líbáš jako bůh | 905 000 |
| 2008 | Bathory | 912 000 |
| 2007 | Vratné lahve | 1 254 tis. |
| 2006 | Účastníci zájezdu | 788 tis. |
| 2005 | Román pro ženy | 551 tis. |
(Source: Union of film distributors)
This data confirms the result of Czech audiovisual market research, conducted at the end of last year by APA in collaboration with the Millward Brown Agency. Based on the research, most Czechs think of Czech film as a quality product (88%); unique (78%); with a long tradition (84%) and a good name abroad (76%). More than half of the Czech population is convinced that the quality of Czech films remains the same or is improving. Czech movies are appealing for their intimacy and relatable content. The audience chooses individual titles primarily based on a favorite genre and the cast.
The share of domestic productions viewed in 2014 dropped slightly to 23,8%. Although the Czech Republic dropped in comparison with other European counties from 6th to 11th place, for 12 years it has held its place among countries with a share larger than 20%.
