14/07/2015 - In amongst all the data, the report highlights last year’s excellent box-office takings and the brutal impact of piracy on the national film industry

Yesterday, at the Spanish Film Academy, a ceremony was held to present the 2014 Yearbook of Spanish Cinema (ACE14) – a glance at its economic data. The report was compiled by three private companies (Barlovento Comunicación, Media Research & Consultancy and Rentrak), and what really stands out among the information it contains is the damage inflicted by piracy, which caused a loss-of-earnings figure of €571 million. In addition, thanks to the phenomenon that was Spanish Affair [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (the third highest-grossing European film on the continent), 2014’s crop of movies was truly exceptional – boasting a share of 24.05% of the screens – and broke “the curse of the viewers who are apprehensive about Spanish films”, according to Antonio Resines, president of the institution where the report was presented.

Lorena González, managing director of the ICAA, was also present, and she stressed this reconciliation between national films and audiences; this just goes to show the strength of the industry, which now intends to reinforce the new pre-financing regulations. The ACE14 provides aggregated data on exhibition in commercial theatres and other outlets (free TV, pay TV and VoD) and provides an analysis of new audience habits, and funding, distribution and production requirements, taking into account the most relevant economic indicators.

It is worth pointing out that France is the country that Spain has made the most co-productions with, with the figure for 2014 standing at nine. 64% of the films released have seen most of their funding come from the sales of their television broadcasting rights, with TVE (30 titles) leading the pack. A total of 114 movies were released across 8,907 screens, raking in €125.69 million – and all of these figures exceeded those of 2013.

Although as things stand today, takings are 60% lower than they were two months ago, it is hoped that 2015 will be another great year for the Spanish film industry, thanks to the impressive results attained by Perdiendo el norte [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Ahora o nunca [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: María Ripoll
interview: María Valverde
film profile], and, hopefully, the success of the imminent releases of the new films by Alejandro Amenábar (read the news), Álex de la Iglesia (read the news) and Emilio Martínez Lázaro: Ocho apellidos catalanes (read the news), which will hit screens on 20 November. 

(Translated from Spanish)