11/01/2010

The production arm of TV network Telecinco claimed 39% of the market share for Spanish film in 2009, thanks mainly to a spectacular end-of-year season during which it enjoyed a series of three big hits: Alejandro Amenabar’s Agora [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (3.3m viewers and just over €21m in takings), Daniel Monzón’s Cell 211 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniel Monzón
film profile] (which brought a lot of viewers back to Spanish film, garnering 1.4m admissions and just under €9m in takings), and comedy Spanish Movie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the debut work by Javier Ruiz Caldera (1.09m viewers and €6.8m in earnings).

In 2009, the production company released a total of five films (added to the three above-mentioned films are Che: Part 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Imago Mortis [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), amassed over €38m in takings and exceeded 6m viewers.

Managing director Paolo Vasile puts this success down to "the 'Telecinco method', which consists in always achieving the highest standards, whatever the project”. Applied to film, this strategy was described to Cineuropa by Telecinco Cinema’s CEO, Ghislain Barrois (see interview).

Over the upcoming months, the company will release Gabe Ibáñez’s Hierro [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabe Ibáñez
film profile] (distributed, like Cell 211, by Paramount Pictures Spain), Oskar Santos’ El Mal Ajeno (“Other People’s Suffering”, produced by Alejandro Amenábar and written by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, to be launched in theatres on April 30 by Alta Films after its presentation at the Berlinale), Eduardo Chapero Jackson’s Verbo, Eugenio Mira’s Agnosia, Jesús Bonilla’s La Daga de Rasputín (“Rasputin’s Dagger”), and Sebastián Cordero’s Rabia (“Rage”).

(Translated from Spanish)