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BOX OFFICE Spain

Spanish cinema’s market share drops to 12.1% in 2010

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The Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) has announced the official figures for Spanish cinema in 2010. Although still very disappointing, they are somewhat better than those announced by unofficial sources a few weeks ago.

At 12.9m, admissions for Spanish productions fell by 4.5m compared to 2009, representing a slump of over 25%. Meanwhile, the share of viewers dropped 3.4 points, from 15.5% in 2009 to 12.1% in 2010.

Overall, 2010 was not a good year for cinema in Spain, which saw lower audience turnout for films of all nationalities. While in 2009 audience figures in theatres reached almost 110m, last year they stood at 101.5m, representing a drop of 8.5m. Comparing both sets of figures, it can be concluded that more than half of the viewers who deserted theatres in 2010 did so by spurning Spanish films.

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There are few surprises among the best-performing Spanish films. Topping the rankings is Fernando González Molina’s Three Meters Above the Sky [+see also:
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(€8.4m), followed by Guillem Morales’s Julia’s Eyes [+see also:
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(€6.8m), and Nacho García Velilla’s To Hell with the Ugly [+see also:
trailer
film profile
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(€6.7m). Perhaps the most revealing indicator of the overwhelming dominance of US films (with over 70% of the box office share) is that none of these three Spanish movies – which are very slick and made with the audience in mind – managed to get past number 18 in the best-performing film rankings.

However, everything points to 2011 being a better year for Spanish cinema. To start with, and in other years this alone would be enough to fix the situation, Santiago Segura’s Torrente 4 [+see also:
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film profile
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has become the most successful release in Spanish film history. Indeed, in its first weekend in theatres it exceeded 1m admissions and grossed €8.4m (the same score achieved by 2010’s best-performing Spanish film, Three Meters Above the Sky, at the end of its entire run).

Moreover, other releases later on in the year include Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s Intruders. These are very solid foundations on which to build a great 2011.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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