Cinemas with an 85.5% drop in the number of spectators in August

Portuguese cinemas welcomed nearly 276,000 spectators in August, down 85.5 percent compared to the same period in 2019, the Cinema and Audiovisual Institute announced.

In terms of revenue, the figures reached in August was around 1.5 million Euros, an 85 percent reduction compared to the same month last year.

The film most viewed in August was "Welcome to Africa", by James Huth, which had 50,450 viewers, followed by "Tenet", by Christopher Nolan, with 43,573, then "Scooby!", by Tony Cervone, with 35. 725 spectators, "Bora Lá" by Dan Scanlon, with 14,435 spectators, and, to complete the five most viewed of the month, "O Segredo: Darreve a sonho" by Andy Tennant, with 12,917 spectators.

In the year's aggregate, total revenues fell by 71.7 percent compared to the first eight months of 2019 to 15.723 million Euros, while the total number of viewers for 2020 by the end of August is 2.9 million, a reduction of 72.1 percent compared to the previous year.

In August last year, for example, 1.9 million people went to Portuguese cinemas.

Covid-19 had a huge impact on the film industry, paralysing film productions, leading to the closure of cinemas, the postponement of festivals and the reflection on film exhibition strategies involving mainly 'streaming' platforms.

Portuguese cinemas, which were able to reopen on 1 June, had around 12,400 spectators in June, representing 1 percent of the attendance recorded in June 2019.

Exhibitors were counting on the launch of new Hollywood films to attract audiences back to theatres, but the main highlights have been successively delayed if not cancelled altogether.

This was the case with Disney's "Mulan", which, after several postponements, had its global premiere on 3 September on the 'streaming' Disney+ platform, which only arrives in Portugal on 15 September, with the film being available in the country in December.

Already "Tenet" by Christopher Nolan, which had been announced as one of the films that would attract audiences to cinemas, premiered in several international markets, including Portugal, on 26 August, a week before arriving in the United States.

In 2019, the commercial cinema exhibition in Portugal generated 83.1 million Euros in ticket sales, of which 50.9 million Euros (61.3 percent) were registered in the 219 cinemas operated by NOS Cinemas.

Of this total revenue, the exhibitor UCI obtained 9.3 million, Cineplace 9.1 million, Cinema City 6.1 million and Castello Lopes/Socorama 3.8 million.

According to the Portuguese Association of Film Companies (APEC), film exhibition companies employ about 2000 workers.