Catalan cinemagoers up to 18.7 million in 2019

Despite the challenges facing the cinema industry, Catalonia's 652 movie theaters saw an overall rise in audience numbers and revenue last year.

Some 18.7 million visits were made to cinemas in 2019, some 700,000 more than the just over 18 million the year before, say figures from Spain's cinema federation, Fece.

The rise in attendance was reflected in overall revenue last year, with total turnover amounting to 119.4 million euros, compared to 116.4 million in 2018.

The rise in overall revenue was also despite a slight drop in ticket prices, which fell to 6.36 euros in 2019 from 6.44 euros the year before.

Spain's best figures for 10 years

As for Spain as a whole, movie theaters saw 105.5 million visits last year, with a turnover of 624 million euros, the highest figure in the past 10 years.

When compared with other European countries, Spain is third in terms of cinema attendance, after France (213 million) and the United Kingdom (176 million).

The Fece figures also show that 57% of people in Spain go to the cinema at least once a month, a number that has gone up 3.8% in the past four years.

Disney dominates the box office

'The Lion King' attracted the most cinemagoers and box office revenue (6.3m/€37m), followed by 'Joker' (5.1m/€30m), and then 'Avengers: Endgame' (4.5m/€29.2m).

Apart from 'Joker', four of the five top-earning movies, which also included 'Aladdin' and 'Toy Story 4', are Disney productions, as are four of the other five in the top-ten films.

The one Spanish production that made it into the top-ten box office films was 'Padre no hay más que uno', directed by and starring Santiago Segura, coming eighth in the rankings.