An ‘Impossible’ box office rescue

Homegrown films achieved their biggest share of the Spanish box office in 27 years in 2012 — 17.9 percent — according to the latest figures from media measurement firm Rentrak.

In absolute terms, they also earned their highest ever receipts with 106 million euros.

All good news to end the year with. After that, though, come the interpretations.

The good figures for Spanish film contrast with a general decline at the box office as a whole in Spain — six percent.

And once again the vast proportion of the total is attributable to just one title, Juan Antonio Bayona’s English-language tsunami drama The Impossible, way out in front of all the rest. Animated feature Las aventuras de Tadeo Jones (Tad, the Lost Explorer), Andalusian police thriller Grupo 7 (Unit 7) and romantic drama Tengo ganas de tí also contributed their share, however, with each bringing over a million viewers into movie theaters.

Only 2009 had seen a similar figure for Spanish film when the likes of Agora and Planet 51 helped bring in takings of 100 million euros.

The president of the FAPAE producers association, Pedro Pérez, on Wednesday said that for the first time in many years the good results demonstrate the mutual understanding that exists between Spanish films and moviegoers in a time of great uncertainty.

“I don’t know if it is going to be short-lived, but what is certain is that 2012 is ending with the biggest receipts for Spanish cinema in history in absolute terms and the highest audience share it has ever had.”

With the results in hand, Pérez appealed to the government to confront the current negotiations to change the funding model for Spanish film production in a responsible fashion.

“It is clear that a proportion of the public has a big interest in Spanish cinema and this is something we have to continue to cultivate,” he said.

The FAPAE president played down the importance of the fact that the 2012 figures once again demonstrate Spanish cinema’s tendency to depend on just one production — a new Pedro Almodóvar or Torrente movie, for example — that comes to the rescue of the industry each year.

It’s a pattern, he explained, that is also seen in France and the United States. “The good figures are produced thanks to one or two films a year,” he said.

In this case, that one film is The Impossible. After 11 weeks on release, the Thailand-set drama, which stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as a couple caught up in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, has amassed over 40.5 million euros at the box office and attracted over 5.8 million people into movie theaters.

The film has already broken all records for a Spanish-produced film, achieving the biggest opening weekend in Spanish box office history — 1.35 million tickets sold — and is the highest-earning Spanish film of all time.

Heading into 2013, producers show themselves to be optimistic, though admit they have not been helped by September’s “abusive” VAT rise, which increased the levy on cinema tickets by an enormous 13 points from 8 percent to 21 percent.

“The government’s measures have clearly been devastating for the industry, but we have achieved these results in spite of them,” Pérez said. “The good result does nothing to take our away our anxiety about finding a new model that has to be put in place.”