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BOX OFFICE Spain

Spanish cinema boosts its overseas box-office performance

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- According to data published by the ICAA, Spanish films released beyond the national borders grossed almost 20% more in 2017 than they did in 2016

Spanish cinema boosts its overseas box-office performance
The Invisible Guest by Oriol Paulo

Box-office takings by Spanish films outside of Spain during 2017 grew by precisely 19.45% compared to 2016, when they grossed €80,951,788. The total sum raked in by Spanish movies released in other countries last year rocketed to €96,709,469 – in other words, an increase of more than €15 million. These data, compiled by the company comScore, were published on 21 March by the Spanish Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute (ICAA), which falls under the jurisdiction of the country’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. This improvement comes in the wake of the one previously announced in 2016, according to data made public by FAPAE during the latest Málaga Film Festival in March 2017, when an 11% growth in the foreign acceptance of Spanish films was witnessed compared to the previous financial year (see the news).

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The progress seen in 2017 is to a great extent down to the triumph of the thriller The Invisible Guest [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in Asia. The film, directed by Oriol Paulo and starring Mario Casas, Bárbara Lennie and José Coronado, was released in eight countries, grossing €22 million, the majority of which was generated in the Chinese market. Paulo is currently hard at work directing his next movie, Mirage, starring Javier Gutiérrez, Chino Darín and Adriana Ugarte (read more).

The subsequent few places in the chart of Spanish productions that grossed the most overseas in 2017 are occupied by the latest outing by JA Bayona, A Monster Calls [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile
]
(with €14,362,156), produced by Apaches Entertainment and released in 57 territories; the US co-production The Promise [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, directed by Terry George (€10,347,672) and seen in 27 countries; the animated film Ozzy by Nacho la Casa and Alberto Rodríguez, which was enjoyed by family audiences in 30 different countries, with just over €9.5 million in box-office takings; and The Healer [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, directed and produced by Paco Arango (which came out in six countries), grossing almost €6 million.

Other Spanish titles that earned more than €1 million abroad in 2017 (it should be noted that some of the movies covered in this report were actually exported back in 2016) included the Argentinian co-production Black Snow [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(€4,337,417); the co-production with Chile, France, Argentina and the USA Neruda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(with just over €4 million); another co-production with France and Argentina, The Summit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Santiago Mitre
film profile
]
(€3,295,221); the animated film Tad, the Lost Explorer, and the Secret of King Midas [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(nearly €2 million); A Fantastic Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, a co-production with Chile, Germany and the USA that recently scooped the Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film (more than €1.5 million); May God Save Us [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
film profile
]
, a crime film directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (€1,600,000); the latest effort by Pedro Almodóvar, Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile
]
, which was brought out in 13 countries, grossing €1.5 million this financial year; and the horror film Verónica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Plaza
film profile
]
by Paco Plaza, which raked in €1,141,358 after being released in six territories.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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