30/12/2003

The Spanish box office was definitely under the shadow of America and its blockbusters released for the holiday season. The big hit in Spain over Christmas was the third episode of the Lord of the Rings saga, The Return of the King. It was distributed in 513 cinemas in Spain, and in its first week of programming it took more than €5.9 million at the box office.
National and European films didn’t fare too well, considering that All or Nothing by Mike Leigh was the only European production released in Spanish cinemas over Christmas. The top ten films at the box office were mainly America productions, like the animation film from Disney Pixar Finding Nemo, which was released in 383 cinemas and took €15m in 4 weeks of programming, putting it in 2nd place, followed at number three by Master & Commander. In fact, the first Spanish production in the top ten is at number 7, El Cid, la leyenda, the animation film, released on December 19 in 285 cinemas, which took €341,000. In 11th place there’s another Spanish film, another animation Los Reyes Magos, taking €216,000 from 150 screens.

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There are some other European films in the top twenty, like the Spanish tragicomedy directed by Antonio Mercero, Te doy mis ojos, at number 17, and the French-Canadian co-production Barbarian Invasions [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by Denys Arcand. It was released in 48 prints distributed by Golem Distribuciòn and it had a low average taking of €1,360 per screen, closing the top twenty with total takings of just over €65,000 in its first week of programming.

(Translated from Italian)