Yearly sales/production volume of film worldwide?

When I google the above question, I get numerous hits for articles about an increase in the demand for photographic film, from both specialised and mainstream media, starting around late 2015/early 2016. But none that I have read carry any figures about the evolution in film production/sales over the last, say 10-15 years. How many units / rolls / feet, whatever, per year are we talking about? Anyone knows where a reliable source can be found?

Just chart the decline from "peak film" around 1999. Industry numbers are what's missing from recent press attesting to substantial, sustained upticks in demand for film. Why? There apparently aren't any comparable to data once compiled by the PMA. It's now a residual market.

 

 

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2011/05/film-falls-off-a-cliff.html

 

Nothing here, either:

 

https://petapixel.com/2016/08/19/film-photography-making-stunning-comeback/

Edited March 6, 2017 by c_watson|1

Who cares if the style is the same as the PMA? Ilford for one has stated clearly their increases Year over year.....ditto Kodak. You seem to have an anti film agenda going on here. Maybe visit the digital forums...you'll be happier there and it will save us all time showing you are wrong time and again.

I surfed around and cannot find any statistics at all.. Just sites that say film is making a comeback. And then they start talking about slowing down and blah blah blah. Anyway I shoot B/W film so I know they are selling a couple hundred feet of it a year.

Who cares if the style is the same as the PMA? Ilford for one has stated clearly their increases Year over year.....ditto Kodak. You seem to have an anti film agenda going on here. Maybe visit the digital forums...you'll be happier there and it will save us all time showing you are wrong time and again.

 

Think you're offside here, Dave. Simply stating there appear to be no aggregate data available aside from makers' statements about "X% increases over last year" which never supply times series output numbers. Sorry this is all so upsetting. Perhaps you can supply the missing data?

Dave L seems very touchy about something that seems completely uncontroversial, and yet he too can not supply any data. As Mike Johnston said in his blog from 2011

 

The "film renaissance" stories you're seeing are derived from the fact that film sales at Harman Technology were up 8% in 2010. That means that use of Ilford black-and-white film—and possibly also black-and-white film across brands, though I can't verify that—is increasing, not that film use as a whole is increasing.

 

Then again, sources tell me that Harman just laid off 20% of its workforce and raised prices for the second time this year because of increases in the cost of silver.

 

It shows a fall in sales from a billion rolls of film a year in 1999 to a mere 20 million last year (2010).

That's 7 years ago, though. Profitability may have improved for film manufacturers since then, but I doubt there has been a significant increase in sales.

I'm not touchy at all. It appears C_Watson has some issues with people discussing film production when he actually has no clue what he is talking about. I have a low tolerance for people spouting off when all they have is a vacuous opinion. At Ilford/Harman, the marketing director, Giles Branthwaite has said over the last 3 years, they've had in excess of 5% growth per year. Dennis Olbrich, the President of Kodak Alaris echoed the same.

 

Quoting sales from 1999 is simply ridiculous. I can quote digital camera sales from that year and claim digital is dead in comparison to film....in other words, nonsensical. As much as it seems ot irritate some people, film sales have been growing.

Thanks for the kind replies. A 5% yearly growth over a 3-year period is at least a concrete number, and a fact I would have expected to find in some of the media stories I came across. I would have liked to know also what the growth figure translates into in terms of total sales or production volume, but this is maybe not so easily quantifiable? Is it possible that the motion picture industry explains some of this recent growth?

I'm not touchy at all. It appears C_Watson has some issues with people discussing film production when he actually has no clue what he is talking about. I have a low tolerance for people spouting off when all they have is a vacuous opinion. At Ilford/Harman, the marketing director, Giles Branthwaite has said over the last 3 years, they've had in excess of 5% growth per year. Dennis Olbrich, the President of Kodak Alaris echoed the same.

 

Quoting sales from 1999 is simply ridiculous. I can quote digital camera sales from that year and claim digital is dead in comparison to film....in other words, nonsensical. As much as it seems ot irritate some people, film sales have been growing.

 

Think you've got some basic numeracy challenges, Dave. Simply claiming a 5% annual increase is meaningless with knowing the baseline figures which aren't in evidence. Growth? Where and how can you or anyone else actually measure it? Increasing? Maybe but from what year's sales/output data and for how long at what annual rate? Seems you're unwilling/unable to quantify "growing."

Think you've got some basic numeracy challenges, Dave. Simply claiming a 5% annual increase is meaningless with knowing the baseline figures which aren't in evidence. Growth? Where and how can you or anyone else actually measure it? Increasing? Maybe but from what year's sales/output data and for how long at what annual rate? Seems you're unwilling/unable to quantify "growing."

 

If film sales are growing, why aren't the labs that passed away coming back to life?

I'm not touchy at all. It appears C_Watson has some issues with people discussing film production when he actually has no clue what he is talking about. I have a low tolerance for people spouting off when all they have is a vacuous opinion. At Ilford/Harman, the marketing director, Giles Branthwaite has said over the last 3 years, they've had in excess of 5% growth per year. Dennis Olbrich, the President of Kodak Alaris echoed the same.

 

Quoting sales from 1999 is simply ridiculous. I can quote digital camera sales from that year and claim digital is dead in comparison to film....in other words, nonsensical. As much as it seems ot irritate some people, film sales have been growing.

 

Seems you have some numeracy challenges, Dave. Simply stating a 5% annual increases meaningless without the baseline figures is meaningless. There's apparently no recent time series data for film sales/production.You're unable/unwilling to quantify "growing." Guess this explains the scolding and denial when you're put on the spot?

 

Where's the widespread revival of dead labs and film services to match "growing" sales?

Well all the camera stores and labs are gone around here. They are not coming back. Anyway at least around here photography of any kind is dead. People just want to look at their phone all the time.

If film sales are growing, why aren't the labs that passed away coming back to life?

 

I actually do see new labs opening. You just arent paying attention. That said, new labs opening is not a metric that has any meaning. What matters is the capacity of the labs that are open now. The fact that you didn't grasp that...along with the fact that you dont seem to grasp what volume growth means, simply means intelligent discussion with you is wasted time.

I actually do see new labs opening. You just arent paying attention. That said, new labs opening is not a metric that has any meaning. What matters is the capacity of the labs that are open now. The fact that you didn't grasp that...along with the fact that you dont seem to grasp what volume growth means, simply means intelligent discussion with you is wasted time.

 

Hilarious. Denial, fabulism and alternative facts with a dollop of magical thinking. For a minute, I thought I was reading APUG post-Kodak crash in early 2012. When you really can't quantify anything, make it up! Right, Dave?

It sure would be nice if you two gentlemen would take the pissing contest somewhere else. I do see film is picking up. Our local camera store/lab has kept it together through all of this and continues to expand. I can walk in with as much film as I choose and have it souped and scanned or printed in a matter of hours. I can also download all of my digital work for printing at any time. The local university continues to offer well attended classes in film based photography and requires the students to learn darkroom skills. No one is knocking digital but film is not dead as so many claim. Personally I'm happy to see that. Now if could just get my digital bodies and film bodies to quit beating each other up late at night.....

 

Rick H.

Not a pissing contest at all. I am quoting figures from the companies themselves....and he is denying they are correct. If you have an issue, maybe approach the person who keeps needing correcting to misinformation...as opposed to those correcting it.

I'm out as once the bickering starts nothing productive comes around. However I can get film and chemicals online and it works out well. I do not know about the overall health of film or if it is booming or whatever. It must be hanging in there because I can get anything I want easy and at very fair prices.

ditto re the pissing contest. I shoot mainly digital, but I still do film sometimes and I'm glad to see new films coming out. Our local camera store still stocks film and people still buy it. They tell me that their film dept. has picked up over the last couple of years. Now that may simply mean that they are gathering up customers that used to go elsewhere that can't anymore, but it doesn't really matter. I can still shoot film when I want to and there's still a "reasonable" choice out there.

Well, the replies in this thread have confirmed that I am apparently not the only one who can't find useful data about the volume of this business sector, although I don't understand why that is so difficult. For example, I suppose that ADOX must have based their decision to open a new plant, as announced last month, on rather accurate figures about the expected demand for film in the coming years.

 

My personal interest in this is of course linked to the fact that I also still shoot film, and on this I fully agree with Uhooru that there's still a reasonable/satisfactory choice of film. I guess we would just like that to continue :-)

One reason it's so hard to get is that it is mostly "proprietary" -

It's a big world, and it is mostly all one or two big fleamarkets (on the WWW).

So there will probably be small outfits, at least, making batches of film for the faithful for some time to come.

 

A swallow, however, does not make a Spring.

Perhaps a reason new labs are not opening is because many film users, like me, have learned to develop their own, including color film.

Perhaps a reason new labs are not opening is because many film users, like me, have learned to develop their own, including color film.

 

True. Modern labs though are geared towards volume. Technology has improved so better results can be had with shorter wait times. Claiming film sales aren't up because one thinks more labs haven't opened is like claiming rush hour traffic isn't heavy because more gas stations haven't appeared.

A swallow, however, does not make a Spring.

So true.

 

Perhaps a reason new labs are not opening is because many film users, like me, have learned to develop their own, including color film.

Still, and perhaps slightly OT, if you look at the recently announced Kodak Super 8 camera, development and scanning will be included in the price of film, much like back in the Kodachrome days (due to the complex nature of the K-14 process and hence small number of labs doing it). Could that be a way forward for film photography if labs continue to close?

True. Modern labs though are geared towards volume. Technology has improved so better results can be had with shorter wait times. Claiming film sales aren't up because one thinks more labs haven't opened is like claiming rush hour traffic isn't heavy because more gas stations haven't appeared.

Whaaaat? I got same day C-41/E-6/b&w from Toronto pro labs--until they either closed, shut their E-6 lines, or only did runs 2-3 times/per week due to greatly reduced processing traffic. Mini-labs? Pre-deceased pro labs by years as film sales cratered.The ripple of increased film sales understandably hasn't done a thing to speed up/expand processing services which are now scarce, slower, costlier, and sometimes crappier than ever before. They seem right-sized for what's left of film materials demand in N. America's 4th largest city.

"“Around the world, Consumer film (i.e. Kodak Gold 200 and UltraMax 400) sales have dropped to less than 1% of what they were in the peak years. So they are niche products now, and the sales channels have consolidated.” says Kodak’s Audrey."

 

This is from 2015. They say that Pro film sales haven't declined as much.