09/07/2012 - On July 5, Paco León's first feature was simultaneously released online, in cinemas, and on DVD.

Carmina o revienta [+see also:
trailer
film profile], popular television actor Paco León's first feature film as a director, was released on July 5 as "the first [Spanish] film to be released on all platforms to give all the people who want to see it the opportunity to do so". The film was simultaneous released online (on seven different VoD platforms, including Filmin, iTunes, and Google play), in cinemas (20 copies), on DVD, and on television (on four channels with on-demand content) in an attempt to change Spain's current rigid film distribution system (read more).

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Today, we can already see results for its first weekend of exhibition. It was the most-viewed film on all online platforms, with over 15,000 views, according to Spanish newspaper El País (which would, according to the ICAA's calculations, bring the number of total spectators up to 30,000, with each online viewing counting as two spectators). The film made €30,000 in cinemas (with an average of €1,500 per copy, the sixth best average this weekend), and it sold 80% of its 15,000 copies on DVD.

Without a definitive calculation for all platforms on which the film was released and a clearer breakdown of how much exactly it made online, it's impossible to evaluate the real rentability of this step towards a new production and distribution model for films. But it is clear that, for low-budget productions (less than €4o,000) with great potential to go viral like Carmina o revienta, it is a more profitable option than just releasing it in cinemas, where it probably would have run up against competition from super-productions as well as limited promotion and screens.

(Translated from Spanish)