The summer months, as well as November and December, saved a year whose first half did not record good figures. However, Spanish cinema and local distributors ended up being the year's big winners, increasing their revenues compared to 2023.

The Spanish box office figures for 2024 have left a positive sense of relief in the local industry, both among distributors and in cinemas. This year has been the equivalent of a rollercoaster, capable of generating both the worst figures seen in 10 years and excellent weekends with crowds equal to those in pre-pandemic times.

According to Comscore, revenues for 2024 stand at 481.8 million euros, generated between 1 January and 31 December, with 71.8 million tickets sold. These figures represent a 2.2% drop compared to 2023 revenues, but a 5.5% drop in the number of cinemagoers, indicating that the ticket price has increased from 6.50 euros in 2023 to 6.71 euros in 2024, an increase of 3.2%. The total annual revenue figure lags behind 2018 and 2019 revenues, but represents an improvement on the 2020 to 2023 average of 324 million euros.

The drop in revenues and cinemagoers should not be interpreted as a negative, but as a temporary circumstance resulting from a period in which Hollywood studios were affected by the lack of content due to the 2023 strikes. During the first five months of the year, the overall box office decline was 16%, with revenues of just 152.5 million euros compared to 182 million euros in 2023. June, July and August brought in 158.5 million euros, almost the same figure as in 2023 thanks to the monumental 45.5 million euros from Inside Out 2 and 24 million euros from Disney's Deadpool and Wolverine. Thanks to the holiday period, the gap with 2023 was reduced to 9.6% in terms of revenues and 12.4% in terms of cinemagoers. It is worth noting that this was the first time that Spanish cinema had a significant impact on overall revenues, achieving 21.7 million euros in July and August, equivalent to a screen share of 19%.

The autumn and the start of the Christmas holidays were key to the success of 2024, being the time when many of the positive elements that the industry hopes to maintain in 2025 were observed: a variety of strong titles, consistency and a diverse influx of cinemagoers. Between September and December, thanks to titles such as Gladiator II (Paramount) and Moana 2 (Disney), the Spanish box office generated 171.1 million euros and sold 25.4 million tickets, figures that represented an increase of 14% in revenue and 11.1% in the volume of tickets sold. During this period, Spanish films once again stood out, contributing 36.4 million euros to this total, with a market share of 21.3%, the highest of the year. This revenue was 45% higher than that recorded by Spanish cinema for the same period in 2023.

One of the highlights of this year was the attraction generated by products released by national companies, both major American titles and films produced in Europe or Spain. Domestic companies generated an estimated 108.8 million euros, 24% more than the previous year. Of these, ten accounted for 17% of the market, some with exceptional results compared to last year. Notable examples are Beta Fiction and Elástica, which are recent start-ups that consolidated their position in the Spanish industrial landscape. The former increased its revenues by 915% over last year to 14.9 million euros, while the latter grew by 136% to 8.6 million euros. Both achieved market shares of 3.1% and 1.8% respectively. Other relevant companies are DeA Planeta, with 11.1 million euros (an increase of 82% compared to 2023), and A Contracorriente, which generated 13 million euros, to which must be added the 4.8 million euros for SelectaVisión, acquired this year, which allowed it to achieve the highest revenue among independent companies, with a screen share of 3.7%.

It is important to note that this year, among the companies with more than 1% of the market share, seven achieved their biggest success with a Spanish film. Sony stood out as the only studio whose biggest hit of the year was a Spanish film: Padre no hay más que uno 4 (Father There Is Only One 4), which grossed 13.4 million euros. In addition, Sony was the fastest growing studio compared to 2023, with a 38% increase in revenue. Among the other companies, Beta earned over 8 million euros with La infiltrada (Undercover); A Contracorriente generated 3.2 million with El 47 (The 47); Bteam Pictures made 1.25 million with Marco; Vercine brought in 3.07 million with Casa en flames (A House on Fire); and Filmax collected 510,000 euros with the documentary Topuria Matador. Together, these films accounted for almost a third of total Spanish cinema revenues in 2024.

Spanish cinema in 2024 was one of the big winners, achieving a 4.8% increase in revenues compared to last year and closing the gap with 2019. According to Comscore, local cinema grossed 87 million euros, only 7.5% less than five years ago. This year was notable for a wide variety of both adult and family productions that generated a significant economic impact. Unlike in previous years, in 2024, more dramas and thrillers managed to position themselves among the top titles, including La infiltrada (Undercover), Marco, El 47 (The 47) and Casa en flames (A House on Fire), as well as La habitación de al lado (The Room Next Door) (Warner), Pídeme lo que quieras (As Me What You Want) (Warner), Soy Nevenka (I’m Nevenka) (Disney) and La virgen roja (The Red Virgin) (Elástica).

On the other hand, comedy, both family and mainstream, continued to be a key driver for the industry, both in terms of production and showings. The big hit of the year was Padre no hay más que uno 4 (Father There Is Only One 4), which having taken home 12 million euros confirms that Santiago Segura and  his producer, María Luisa Gutiérrez, are creators capable of understanding the system of sequels and franchises to satisfy the industry’s economic demands. Through their production company, Bowfinger, Segura and Gutiérrez were also responsible for another of the year's family comedies, La familia Benetón (Uncle Trouble) (Beta), which grossed 4 million euros. Comedy, both family and general, grossed 39 million euros this year with 13 titles in the top 20. In the same vein, it is worth mentioning the 7.6 million euros generated by Spanish animation, thanks to the figures achieved by Buffalo Kids (Warner), at 5.2 million euros, and Dragonkeeper: Guardiana de dragones (A Contracorriente), which made almost 2 million euros.

            Overall, 2024 has been proof that watching films in cinemas is still relevant and interesting to viewers, and requires not only big events but also consistency. While March saw releases like Dune: Part Two (Warner) and Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal), the remainder of the first half of the year was characterised by fewer strong releases, which meant that cinema entertainment was not very present in the general imagination of mainstream audiences. On the contrary, the second half of the year not only saw a string of hits but also excellent results being achieved by several films simultaneously, generating particular interest among what is understood to be an adult, film-loving target audience. The industry expects this trend to continue during 2025.