In Spain, cinema attendance rose by 29.7% in 2023, reaching 76.7 million viewers compared with 59.1 million in 2022, while box office collections climbed 34.2% from 367.5 million euros to 493 million euros, according to official statistics from the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA). The latest data, released this Thursday, shows a continued upward trend after the Covid crisis, though the figures have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The audience decrease remains notable when set against the 2019 benchmark, with 26.9% fewer people and 19.8% lower box office revenue than that year. In 2019 Spain saw 104.9 million admissions and 614.7 million euros in receipts, numbers that set the reference point for current performance.
Spain also saw a different dynamic in the mid year period, with Spanish cinema watched by 13.4 million viewers and generating 82.4 million euros in revenue, modestly up by 2.3% from 2022, which recorded 13.1 million viewers and 77.5 million euros. The trend underscores a stabilization after the pandemic while still lagging behind the peak years in the late 2010s.
When comparing to 2019, the declines persist, with viewers down by 15.7% and revenue down by 10.6%. These contrasts highlight the uneven recovery across the market and the ongoing impact of broader economic conditions on cinema-going habits in the country.
Market share for Spanish films, defined as the proportion of total viewers choosing Spanish productions, stood at 17.5% in 2023. This figure shows a dip from 2022, which stood at 22.1%, but it also marks an improvement relative to 2019 when the share was 15.1%. The trend suggests evolving audience preferences within a highly competitive national and international film mix.
More female directors and screenwriters
ICAA statistics also highlight progress in gender representation within the industry. In 2023, women directed or wrote scripts for 41.9% of Spanish-made feature films, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 2019. The data indicate a sustained push toward more inclusive storytelling in the national cinema landscape.
Additional breakdown shows that 25.9% of Spanish-made feature films were directed or co directed by a woman, up from 20.7% in 2019. In script development, female participation reached 34.7%, reflecting a broadening role for women across creative leadership and production processes. These shifts illustrate a gradual but meaningful change in the industry structure, aligning with longer-term national conversations about representation in cinema.