For Italian and Spanish cinema, 2016 was a great year. In Spain over 18 million people bought tickets to see Spanish films, which represent €110 million for the country’s film industry. “A Monster Calls” the new film by J A Bayona’s made €26 million at the box-office. The biggest moment in the year is of course during the Fiesta del Cine, with millions of people go to the cinema for half the price. The big surge for the Spanish market started in 2014 when “Ocho apellidos Vasco” came out. The market share of Spanish films totalled 18% across the whole of 2016,.
The big Spanish success of the year were “Palmeras en la nieve” by Fernando González Molina, “Villaviciosa de al lado” by Nacho G Velilla and “Cien años de perdón” directed by Daniel Calparsoro. This all contributed to a great year in general for movie theatres in Spain with 100 million cinema admissions, grossing €600 million, or 5% more than in 2015.
Italy also had a good year. The film association ANICA released its data for the calendar year. Total sales rose 3.9% over the previous year to $706 million (661 million euro). And tickets sold increased 3.9% to 105 million. And good news this was thanks to local productions like “Quo Vado”?by Gennaro Nunziante which brought in 65.4 million euros for the year. The second on the list is “Perfetti sconosciuti” by Paolo Genovese which made 17.4 million euros.
The main attraction in Italy is still the Hollywood films even though the market share is down compared to 2015 (55.65% percent in 2016 and 60.97% in 2015).
The bad news is that one film flourished those numbers “Quo Vado?” is an exception. If we analyse the numbers the Italian cinema is in bad shape certainly during the Christmas season which showed a net loss of 6 million viewers compared to 2015. The problems lie in the outdated publicity and marketing system which need innovation and new strategies to restore those viewers numbers.
