Cinemas needed a miracle to save a year that promised to be catastrophic. Despite some successes, cinemas experienced a very complex year 2025, seeing the collapse of titles that they were looking forward to and with the certainty that they would attract people to buy a ticket. 2025 has been the year of superhero fatigue – Marvel eagerly awaits the arrival of the Avengers after confirming that neither the new Captain America nor the Fantastic Four worked as planned.
2025 has been a polarizing year for cinemas. Not because of this use of polarization in Campofrío’s advertising, but because it alternates between full weekends…Lilo and Stitch, Zootropolis And Minecraft devastated – with others absolutely catastrophic, with figures almost unprecedented since the pandemic. The long-awaited recovery has still not arrived and the total figures are certainly worrying. But at the last moment, the usual arrived: James Cameron.
If a few months ago, some pessimistic analysts wondered if Avatar had managed to penetrate the popular imagination, its third part, fire and ashesshowed that not only is this the case, but no one can ever bet against the filmmaker placing his last three films among the top four highest-grossing films. From time to time for this delivery of Avatar Also enter the ranking of those who won the most money.
The first weekend’s numbers worried many, but once again it was confirmed that Avatar It’s not a Marvel movie – and thank goodness it’s not – but a Christmas phenomenon that people don’t have to go see in its first three days, but is the event they want to attend over the next few weeks. The film’s numbers since its first day are astronomical, but the most important thing is that it shows virtually no decline in the second weekend or in daily days, demonstrating incredible legs and long life. All of this helped mask previously much worse movie numbers.
Even with all the success of Avatar: fire and ashesSpanish cinema data for 2025 is worse than 2024. The total Spanish box office stands at 453 million euros as of December 29, as shown in the annual report of Comscore, the company that measures cinema data. A drop of 8% compared to 2024 attendance data. A figure which could be worse, but which comes from a year which was not good. These 477 million already represented a drop of 5% compared to 2023.
If finally in these last two days of the year the sum of Avatar And Zootropolis 2 continues to raise money, it could hit 460 and cut the decline a bit. The drop in viewers will also be a little more significant, as analyst Pau Brunet explains in one of his latest analyses: “Many of the biggest hits of the year saw greater attendance in premium formats, as in the case of Avatar: fire and asheswhich had an average price 18% higher than the others. The expert estimates that when comparing this year’s data with 2019, the number of tickets sold decreased by 26.7%.
Avatar It also boosted the US box office. December’s numbers ultimately had movie theaters bringing in more than $8.6 billion, which would improve on 2024’s data and just 2.3% below 2023’s numbers, considered the best post-pandemic year.
The Comscore report highlights the irregularity of the price: “The evolution of the box office showed irregular behavior throughout the year. While the first half closed positively, with an increase of 3% compared to 2024, the second half will close with a provisional decline of 16%, weighed down mainly by the results of October (-28%) and November (-31%), whose results this year have been far from what they usually contribute to the overall box office. summer Avatar: Fire and Ashreleased on December 19, with 6.2 million euros in its opening weekend.
And Spanish cinema?
Spanish cinema also had an irregular year. Figures released by the Ministry of Culture before last weekend show that Spanish films grossed 78.6 million euros and sold almost 12.2 million tickets. In 2024, the final data stood at 83.9 million. This would be 6% more than this year. If in the last days of the year Spanish cinema, with the flow of films that remain in theaters (and which are currently outside the top ten), scrapes until finally exceeding 80 million, this drop would drop to 4.6%.
The screen share according to the latest figures amounts to 19%, according to Comscore. These are the same data as last year. Thus, the proportion according to which one in five tickets sold concerns Spanish cinema would be maintained. But long gone are the days when films produced in Spain managed to cross the 100 million euro mark.
There is a worrying fact about Spanish cinema, which is that only one film has managed to exceed a million spectators at the box office. It is of course the continuation of Father, there is only one. The fifth installment of the Santiago Segura saga is the only blockbuster of Spanish cinema and the only Spanish film to enter the general top ten most watched films this year. A ranking that currently leads Lilo and Stitch with 24.3 million euros. Father, there is only one will be exceeded by Zootropolis and will end the year in a very honorable position of number 7 of the most successful films in 2025.
The fact that there are no more Spanish films that exceed a million tickets sold is worrying, because the industry does not know how to produce commercial films that reach the public and bring them to theaters. Even the productions of Telecinco Cinema and Atresmedia cannot achieve this. In second place among the most watched Spanish films is The captivethe film by Alejandro Amenábar which left a bittersweet taste, as more revenue was expected from one of the most promising films.
There are five films worth more than three million euros, and there are two of this year’s big surprises: dinnerthe comedy of Manuel Gómez Pereira, and Sundays. That Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s film, a festival-winning adult film, is on the verge of exceeding four million euros at the box office is an undeniable success.
This is the positive note of Spanish cinema. Because if it has managed to maintain its screen share and, more or less, the final figures, it has been without blockbusters, that is to say, resorting to that medium-sized cinema, for adults and arthouse, which has worked more than well this year and which has produced works like Siratwith 2.9 million euros, i.e. Pilgrimage, With almost 1.8, they perform better than much larger works. Both, especially Laxe’s title, could be helped by awards nominations to scratch something extra into a box office that is looking to 2026, keen for it to be better than the year that is ending.
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