Spanish market figures from AIMC: a fall in the average number of seats per theatre
by Elisabetta Brunella

Theatres with fewer seats: this is one of the trends that emerge from the survey on Spain’s cinemas carried out by AIMC again this year.

The twenty-sixth edition of the so-called “Movie theatre census” - which provides a snapshot of the situation on the first of April 2024 - shows on the one hand that the total number of Spain’s movie theatres has remained basically stable over the past few years, settling at around 3,600 units. In 2024 in particular, there are 3,560 screens, with a small reduction compared to 2023, resulting from 68 openings and 99 closures.

On the other hand, in 2024 movie theatres offer just over 738,000 seats, with a slight1.3% dip compared to the previous year, but a far more significant 7.5% over the past nine years, all of which results in the loss of around 60,000 seats.

How should this decrease be interpreted? We can see the sign that the Spanish market, too, is focusing on comfort, in order to give spectators a better viewing experience, a strategy that began before Covid and has been confirmed over the last few years which might be defined as those of the “comeback”.

The provision of larger and more comfortable armchair seats, further apart and perhaps fitted with accessories, such as foot-rests or tables, is a more or less widespread trend in Europe. It is part of a move towards the offer of diversified services for the spectator, which even extend to providing refreshments during screenings - something that obviously requires more space and specially equipped seats.

In Spain, parallel to the average number of seats per cinema (from 1,203 in 2014 to 988 in 2024), there is a drop to be seen in the average number of screens per cinema, which now comes to around 4.7, compared to 5.3 ten years previously.

This is quite an interesting piece of information in a country where almost half the sites are located in complexes with at least ten auditoriums and where authentic megaplexes with decidedly exceptional numbers of screens and/or seats have been operating for some time now.

The sites that particularly stand out are those built by Kinepolis in the surroundings of Madrid - la Ciudad de la Imagen - and in Valencia, at Paterna, both of which have 24 screens and seating for over eight thousand. Added to the latter are the Full Splau multiplex south of Barcelona, with as many as 28 screens but seating fewer than three thousand, managed by the Belgian company characterised by its traditional strategy focusing on the exceptional number of auditoriums per complex, and the megaplex Las Rozas di Cinesa, with 24 screens and around 4,500 seats, north-west of the Capital.

Another interesting piece of information giving an idea of what particular sort of offer we can expect to see from cinemas in the near future, regards 3D. From the “Census” we learn that whilst in 2015 for the first time over half of sites were equipped for this type of screening, a slow but distinct decline in numbers has taken place. Consequently, following the 51.6% of 2016, in the space of less than a decade the spread of 3D dropped over five points, falling to 46.1%. A fairly clear indication of the stagnating interest and confidence in this form of cinematic expression, both from spectators and from producers.

 
Cinema exhibition in Spain in the last decade
Key figures from "Censo de Salas de Cine", by AIMC as at April 1^st, 2024

AIMC

AIMC is the Research Association on Means of Communication, which carries out “Censo de Salas de Cine” with the collaboration of the leading advertising agencies in Spanish cinemas.
AIMC publishes the main figures on movie theatres collected on the first of April each year.
This information may therefore differ from the statistics collected by FECE and ICAA which refer to 31 December.

Nice: an all-round cinematographic experience
by Elisabetta Galeffi

At lunchtime in Nice there are two cinemas open between the Hôtel Negresco and Place Masséna: the Variétés and the Rialto.

It’s a Monday towards the end of May and schools or mothers are taking their children to watch animated cartoons. In particular, they are making for the Rialto, a five-screen multiplex with a vocation to accommodate “young audiences”, as emerges from its website.

The prices are decidedly favourable for budding spectators, who pay only 4.50 euros, and those accompanying them (6.50 euros), compared to the full ticket price, which may reach 8.50 euros (though it drops to 6.00 euros for matinées).

The Variétés has seven auditoriums, housed in the prestigious Donadei palace, built at the beginning of the 20th century. Before becoming a real cinema in 1943 it was a cabaret right at the heart of the city.

The majestic entrance preceded by palm trees, a true icon of the Côte d’Azur, is marked by a large sign extending towards the boulevard.

“The auditoriums have been renovated since Covid”, writes a habitué of the Variétés on social media “they aren’t highly modern, but comfortable and charming: a real cinema experience at competitive prices”.

“There are English subtitles,” writes another, certainly a homage to the cosmopolitan city and its international visitors.

During the Cannes Festival, the Variétés screens some of the films that have been simultaneously released in France during the competition on La Croisette. The same exciting and frivolous atmosphere is to be breathed in the surrounding cafés and the nearby streets.

In fact several journalists and others involved in the work of the Festival stay in Nice, partly because of the exorbitant prices of Cannes’ hotels and restaurants, and partly because they can follow some of the screenings here and easily get to La Croisette and the cinema market if needs be, perhaps for an interview. The short distance of only a few kilometers and the fast train service allows the Festival to extend to Nice.

The Variétés is on the boulevard at the corner with the Rialto, the latter being located in a more modern building dating to the ‘70s, certainly elegant but lacking historical charm. This proximity means that it must be difficult to offer diversified programming.

This is quite a challenge for the two cinemas, yet it seems they are managing to meet it, drawing at times on “mainstream” films and at others on independent or niche productions, not to speak of added content such as opera on the big screen or so-called art-based films.

In addition, film weeks and special initiatives flourish, too, ranging from the Rialto’s “surprise” screenings, the Little films Festival and the partnership with the Nice Jazz Fest, to the Science-Fiction Festival or the retrospective “Play it again!” or the “karaoke version screenings” at the Variétés.

An abundance of cinema, broad cinematographic expression, but no popcorn in these theatres, where one does not nibble “maïs soufflé” whilst watching a film.

But Nice’s vocation for the cinema extends well beyond its prestigious movie theatres: this southern French city, capital of the Department of Les Alpes Maritimes, but for the whole world the capital of the Côte d’Azur and its famous joie de vivre, is an open-air film set.

In 2023 it hosted over 160 days of studio filming and 600 on location, including shooting for the big screen and for television, not only French.

Film crews and actors everywhere: in the La Victorine studios, conceived way back in 1919, situated between Nice airport and the centre; on the natural film sets of its squares, one prime example being Place Masséna; on the kilometers-long Promenade des Anglais with its Belle Époque and Art Déco buildings, the Negresco and the Palais de la Méditerranée; on its sand and pebble beaches; in the narrow lanes of the old town and lastly the surrounding hills, where the roads wind through a wealth of vegetation and fabulous villas, the roads of Cary Grant’s and Grace Kelly’s headlong races in Hitchcock’s unforgettable “To catch a thief”.

But the history of Nice, the city of cinema, does not end with those 1955 races, nor the year after, when a scantily-clad Bardot walked the beaches for “Et Dieu créa la femme” or when Truffaut shot “La nuit américaine”, the story of a film set told to the spectators. Even though it’s hard not to suffer from a certain “déjà vu” in these parts, the sets have new actors, the imagination of the directors and screenwriters who invent new stories to tell.

600 days of shooting in 2023 is a unique record even for this city, which confirms its claim to be an open-air Hollywood, and is the proof that the French, who invented the seventh art with the Lumière brothers on 13 February 1895, have managed to make it into a great industry which continues to prosper…

It is no coincidence that the Cannes Festival, which has just completed its 77th edition only a few kilometers away, enjoys excellent health.

According to “Focus on film market trends”, the statistical publication by the European Audiovisual Observatory, distributed during the Marché du Film de Cannes, France distinguishes itself internationally in 2023 by recording a positive balance in screen numbers, as well as the highest recovery rate of spectators compared to the pre-Covid period among the leading European markets.

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