What is the future of movie theaters in Spain?

Luis Gil Palacios, general director of HE DID (Federation of Cinemas of Spain), addresses the current situation and future challenges of movie theaters in Spain in this forum.

The future is a project that is built from the present with echoes of the past. The current situation has revealed the vulnerability of a social and economic construction that needs to decisively confront the threats that condition our development as we know it. Threats that must be opportunity for adaptation and transformation. Movie theaters are a positive example of this.

The health situation has accelerated changes that were glimpsed in the future, reducing the transition period and altering the perception of their impact. Before confinement, the exhibition sector was experiencing a positive evolution where 2019 was the best year of the decade. This evolution was accompanied by a strong investment in technology and innovation in the conception of the movie theater in the face of the challenges that were on the table at that time. The forced closures since the pandemic began and the successive restrictions that persist to this day have brought a screeching halt to the sector, which survives thanks to the efforts of its entrepreneurs and the tools that have been put in place by the administration, although direct aid has been the lowest in our closest European environment.

However, the look is optimistic, motivated by the improvement in the health situation and the arrival of films with the ability to seduce the viewer to enjoy them in movie theaters. Recovering consumer habits is one of the main challenges of the sector. Cinemas are making efforts to adapt to the current environment, innovating in its programming to be able to offer other types of content of cultural interest, such as operas, or the increase of Spanish and European cinema. This is a challenge where it is essential to have the support of institutions and the educational community to value the closest production and assert cinema as a fundamental part of culture.

Movie theaters in a VOD world

At a time characterized by the digitalization and liquidity of relational and consumption habits, movie theaters emerge as a fundamental element to maintain and care for a solid culture that allows the full potential of the cinematographic work to be extracted and exploited. Although video on demand (VOD) platforms are a new agent in the audiovisual sector, they are a different and complementary format. Studies carried out both in the United States and in Spain show that, The greater the consumption of cinema in theaters, the greater the length of the films on the platforms.. The exclusive release of a film in theaters gives it added value for its exploitation on other platforms. Maintaining an exclusive exhibition window for films in cinemas is essential for the development of the entire value chain and for the best exploitation of the film.

Movie theaters are a fundamental cultural infrastructure so that film creation can be exploited in a way suitable for all agents in the value chain. They promote cohesion, social and economic development and cultural dissemination. From an artistic point of view, they are the space of materiality of the work where the necessary characteristics are given so that it can be enjoyed in the way its creators conceive it. Enjoying a movie in a movie theater gives the viewer a unique experience, with image and sound quality impossible to replicate in a home environment. They are the space for the coexistence of our own and other people's emotions that contributes to the promotion of social relationships, in silence the bodies also speak, and the creation of community around movie theaters.

The future is uncertain and full of challenges and successes to achieve. If technology has been a threat to movie theaters throughout history, at this time it can also be a great ally for the good development and growth of the sector. Conscious and sustainable growth that promotes environmentally friendly consumption habits. With the viewer at the center of every strategy, movie theaters are adapting in order to offer a diversity of attractive content, a renewed experience and attract the public to continue enjoying a unique experience that can only be enjoyed in a movie theater.