Country Focus: Spain
Audience figures up 3.7m in first half of 2009
by Sergio Ríos Pérez
09/07/2009 - During the first half of 2009, audience figures in Spanish theatres rose by 7.9% over the same period last year, according to statistics published by the FECE (Federation of Spanish Cinemas).
The total number of viewers stood at 48.8m, 3.7m more than in 2008. Box office takings shot up by 13%, from €261 to €296m.
According to the FECE, the key to these good results is “the success of 3D films, the release of a high number of major productions and the enthusiastic reception given to Spanish titles”. Among the latter are Brain Drain [trailer] (the only Spanish production in the top ten, with 1.1m admissions) and Sex, Party and Lies [trailer] (715,697 viewers).
There has been a slightly disappointing performance by Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, Broken Embraces [trailer, film focus], which has attracted just over 670,000 cinemagoers, a much lower result than for his previous works (Volver [trailer, film focus], 1.93m; Bad Education [trailer], 1.24m; Talk to Her [trailer], 1.36m; All About My Mother, 2.59m).
