The cinema is in luck ... or not, depending on how you look at it. According to data from the SGAE , 2009 it was an excellent year for cinema in our country . The Spanish cinemas have received the visit of 110 million spectators and have raised 675 million euros , 35% more than in 2008 and 1% above the best mark , which dates from 2004 . And that despite "piracy."
The highest grossing Spanish film of 2009 has been í gora , by Alejandro Amenabar , with 19 million euros , followed by Planet 51 , with 10 million euros and La Celda 211 , with almost nine million . In absolute terms, almost 14% of the collection is taken by Spanish productions . Taking into account the old woman, that means that the national premieres have raised just over 78 million euros , a figure confirmed by the Ministry of Culture on its website .
Let's get on with the numbers. According to provisional collection data from the Ministry of Sinde , the 25 highest-grossing Spanish films have raised just over 67 million euros . Given that, in 2009 299 films have premiered Spanish (again according to the website of the ministry), that means the other 274 have achieved impressive (for negative) figure of 11 million euros . In other words, those other 274 films released have raised, on average, 40,000 euros each . Any economist would put his hands to the head before such figures of profitability? .
Without going to relate this "hit" with what the cinema receives in subsidies , something is wrong in this country when 8% of the films that are released collect 86% of the total while 92% of the national audiovisual production is barely capable of covering 14% of total box office revenue.
Obviously, culture cannot be reduced to only what sells the most, but this year's figures, once again, reveal an alarming inefficiency in the sector. Perhaps more than one and more than two of those films that make up 92% of the national production are bad for horror, or so pretentious and "culturally elevated" that only four modern people, generally friends of the producer, swallow them.
Perhaps the Ministry of Culture should take action on the matter, although the official version will be, as always, that these 274 "masterpieces" did not sell anything at the box office because of internet piracy . Let's see if it is going to be true that a large part of the productions are only started to win money from subsidies .