SCREENVILLE: Screens & Population - World Cinema Stats (5)

Screens per million population (2007-08) 67 nations + EU + HK + Québec

Number of screens in 2008 (or 2007 when not available) compared to the population size (in 2008, sorry about this convenient approximation). See total number of screens here.
This puts every nation on equal footing, regardless for their population size. We can see the omnipresence/shortage of screens available to the entire population.
Iceland is still on top with 141 screens per million inhabitants (population = less than 1/3 of a million). The only country above the USA. USA (=132 scr./mil) is the widest theatre circuit in the world, bringing cinema to the largest share of population.
By contrast, the other "big cinema nations" could improve their theatre offering : EU (74); India (12); China (total: 31 / modern: 3), their population exceeds the American population and could score higher with a comparable abundance of screens (provided the movie-going enthusiasm follows).
We find the countries that topped the Attendance per capita chart : Ireland, Spain, Australia, Norway, France, Canada... albeit not in the same order. Meaning the number of screens is not always the limiting factor. The countries that are no longer on top in this stats (Singapore, New Zealand, Georgia, South Korea...) attract more audience proportionally with less screens available. These countries already have a motivated movie-going population, and could benefit from an increase of screens to improve even more their scores.

In the next chart, we can see the countries that fill theatres easily, and at the bottom those with empty theatres...

Average Yearly Audience per screen (2008) 65 nations

India dominates once again the chart (though it needs confirmation that the data I have for Admissions corresponds to the same screens that are tallied, like the China discrepensy between modern theatres and total screenings). This ratio showing full seats for each screen is way higher than anywhere else in the world, and it corroborates the results in previous graphs (highest admissions tally, and medium screen quantity). Either all theatres are huge, or most shows must be sold out. Which makes movie-going enthusiasm quite visible in Indian culture, in the street. No wonder Indian exhibitors had the leverage to negotiate a deal with Bollywood in the early 2009 strike. There seems to be too few theatres in India to cater for the massive audience.
The next nations (Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia) are only half as big as India. Surprisingly they are the ones that were at the bottom of the charts previously (film production, admissions, attendance per capita, screens), though Singapore did rank 2nd in attendance per capita. Again it shows demand exceeds supply.
Hong Kong and South Korea are two nations with a high production and a great audience following, like India. Over Iceland and USA, which are the top nations in Admissions per capita, they are only a 1/6 as high as India, or a 1/3 of the next group aforementioned.
At the bottom of this chart (Czech Rep., Sweden, Ukraine) either have too many screens, or the population doesn't like cinema (on the big screen) enough.

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