The box office in Mexico, still far from pre-pandemic revenue

At the end of the extinct 2022 and almost three years after the start of the pandemic and its restrictions, although the attendance figures at movie theaters in the country have shown improvement compared to the two previous years, these were far from an ideal scenario. of recovery.

According to preliminary data from the National Chamber of the Film Industry (Canacine), during 2022, 165 million tickets were sold, 85% more than the tickets sold in 2021 (89 million), but still below 232 million. of tickets of 2019.

Those 165 million tickets sold during the year that just ended left 10,853 million pesos (mdp) in revenue for the national ticket offices, a notable improvement (89%) compared to the billing of the still uncertain 2021, with 5,750 million pesos, and even more compared to to the fateful 2020, with only 3,460 million pesos in box office revenue.

However, those 10.8 million pesos entered at the national box office in 2022 are 38% below the income of 2019, the year with the all-time high for the national box office: 17,557 million pesos.

In another data of interest in the Caniem report with data from Comscore, the average attendance during 2022 was 1.31 times per inhabitant, while in 2019 it was 2.64 times per inhabitant.

The annual average price

Between 2015 and 2022, the average ticket price to enter the cinema has increased by almost 20 pesos. According to the Canacine report, in 2015 the entrance to a projection room cost about 46.5 pesos, while in 2022, about 65.7 pesos.

The largest increase in those seven years occurred between 2020 and 2021, due to the blockade that kept the rooms closed for long periods. In these two years, the price of a ticket to see a movie on the big screen went from 57.2 to 64.9 pesos, that is, during the transition between the first two years of the pandemic, the average price per ticket increased 7.7 pesos.

What does it hold for movie theaters if, from a distance, the health emergency refutes their agony? Meanwhile, the exhibitors and the camera itself promote and reiterate a campaign to regain public confidence in the projection rooms. How much of this reduction is not necessarily due to the viewer’s mistrust of health, but rather due to the overwhelming but comfortable offer of content via streaming? The numbers will specify it.

How did Mexican cinema do?

During 2021 and against all odds, Mexican cinema produced unprecedented numbers of productions achieved in one year, with 259 films, according to Imcine’s Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Cinema. At the same time, the audiovisual union in our country has fought to gain exhibition space and time, especially in commercial cinemas, even more so after a pandemic that put exhibitors on the ropes.

Going back to the Canacine report, during 2020 40 Mexican films were released, much less than those released in 2019 (95), however, those four dozen national films contributed 11.6% of the national box office revenue at a time when the big production companies from the mecca of western cinema kept their blockbusters.

By 2021 and 2022, more Mexican films were released, 59 and 81 respectively, but the public’s attention to the productions of our country decreased in the face of the awakening of the Hollywood monster. In 2021, public interest in Mexican films shown in commercial theaters left a 4.7% share of the global box office, while in 2022, even with more national films on display than in 2020, the contribution was lower: 3.5 percent, the minimum participation in the box office total since 2015.

Mexico versus the rest:

In 2022, our country rose from sixth to fourth place in the list of countries with the highest number of tickets sold for movie theaters, only below India, China and the United States. However, in our country movie tickets are still affordable when compared to other countries. For this reason, Mexico fell from ninth to tenth place among the nations with the highest economic percentage contributed to the international box office.

ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx