Spanish cinema’s market share drops to 12.1% in 2010

The Institute of Film and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) has announced the official figures for Spanish cinema in 2010. Although still very disappointing, they are somewhat better than those announced by unofficial sources a few weeks ago.

At 12.9m, admissions for Spanish productions fell by 4.5m compared to 2009, representing a slump of over 25%. Meanwhile, the share of viewers dropped 3.4 points, from 15.5% in 2009 to 12.1% in 2010.

Overall, 2010 was not a good year for cinema in Spain, which saw lower audience turnout for films of all nationalities. While in 2009 audience figures in theatres reached almost 110m, last year they stood at 101.5m, representing a drop of 8.5m. Comparing both sets of figures, it can be concluded that more than half of the viewers who deserted theatres in 2010 did so by spurning Spanish films.

There are few surprises among the best-performing Spanish films. Topping the rankings is Fernando González Molina’s Three Meters Above the Sky (€8.4m), followed by