"I'd like to welcome you to Palma de Mallorca, the city hosting the first edition of MAS and thus positioning itself as an international reference point for added content on the big screen."
This morning it was with these words that Pedro Barbadillo. Director of the Mallorca Film Commission, welcomed participants at the Conference addressing players in the sector, in the context of Mallorca Arts on Screen, the first festival and competition devoted to the artistic and cultural content that movie theatres are able to offer an increasing number of spectators, thanks to digitization.
The fact that this is a reality which is not only growing considerably but also capable of bringing new audiences into cinemas is proved both by statistics and by the experience of cinemas particularly involved in this innovative sector.  Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, showed that since 2010 box office for added content on three large markets like Italy, France and the United Kingdom, has increased more than 300% over a period of seven years. From the theatres' point of view, the Cines Van Dyck of Salamanca, the Piccolo Teatro of Padova and the Corvin of Budapest explained the strategies that make it possible to enter the group that Giovanni Cozzi, Director of MAS, defined as the Club 150+, or those screens that record an average of over 150 spectators for every screening.
From the accounts given by these exhibitors it emerged that a sound knowledge of the public and its increasingly diversified interests is the basis for proposing "tailor-made" content.  What can be of help to cinemas not wishing to limit themselves to standard programming?  Marketing strategies conceived especially for cultural and artistic content - as explained by Ben Johnson of Gruvi - or more and more sophisticated technological innovations: for example, the subtitling system available directly on the spectator's smartphone, presented by Seneit Debese of Greta and Starks, or the new Streamer by Cinemeccanica, a Theatre Management System so flexible that it also includes a touchscreen which can be activated by the spectators themselves, in a new concept of cinemas housing small, but also super-technological VIP auditoriums bookable using an app by those who wish for an exclusive programme.

The first day of MAS, which comes into being in the same year dedicated by the European Union to our cultural heritage, concluded with the presentation of the Europa Award. This acknowledgement went to the British Museum's production "Pompei", conceived to publicize the exhibition organized with the cooperation of the Archeological Department of Naples and Pompei, which has become the model for a series of contents bringing Europe's rich artistic and cultural heritage to the world at large.

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