More cinemas but fewer seats according to the latest AIMC census

AIMC, the Association for Media Research, prepares a new census of movie theaters, which shows an increase in the number of movie theaters (the highest since 2011), while the number of theaters remains stable and the number of seats decreases slightly.

For its production, AIMC has had the collaboration of the two largest exclusivists and advertising distributors in the cinema medium, such as 014 DS y Moviedis (Movierecord and Discine integration). This study, which provides one of the most detailed views of the panorama of film exhibition in Spain, is based on the previous census, from April 1, 2024, and has been completed through important research work around the basic units of analysis, which are exhibition venues, screens/halls and seats, establishing as a reference the situation in Spain as of May 1, 2025.

The new AIMC Census shows that the The number of film exhibition venues in Spain has increased by 1.1% compared to the previous year, going from 752 to 760, reaching a level not seen since 2011. On the other hand, the The number of rooms/screens stands at 3,562, practically the same as in the previous census (+2 screens, with an increase of +0.1%), with 71 new ones and 69 low ones. The figure is similar in recent years and it can be seen how since 2019 its number has stabilized, with small ups and downs, around 3,600 units.

Regarding the number of seats, the figure is set at 732,080, which represents a decrease of 5,973 (-0.8%) compared to the 2024 study. If we compare it with the data recorded in 2015, the accumulated decrease is somewhat greater, with the disappearance of 66,172 seats (-8.3%) in the last 10 years.

Cinemas with fewer screens

In recent years, there has been a slight but constant trend towards the existence of cinemas with fewer screens and, above all, that increasingly have fewer seats in each room, although on the other hand, the seats are usually larger and more comfortable. In the extreme case of comfort, there is some room where even part of the traditional seats have been directly replaced by beds.

The The average number of seats per room/screen is 206 units (two less than in 2024 and 19 less than in 2014) and each location has an average of 4.7 rooms (six tenths less than in 2014). Consequently, the average number of total seats per movie theater (including all theaters) has also decreased, from 1,203 seats in 2014 to 970 currently. In the case of the summer cinemas, the capacity per screen is usually greater, with 537 seats on average compared to 197 for conventional ones. However, the average number of rooms per location in this type of cinema is lower: 1.1 rooms compared to 5.2 for conventional ones.

51.2% of the premises (that is, a total of 389) have more than one room/screen, showing decreases of 0.7 points compared to 2024 and 8.7 points compared to 2014. Another relevant fact is that practically half of the rooms/screens (48.4%) are found in premises with 10 or more rooms, and one in four (26.0%) in premises of 7 to 9 screens.

Population profile

The AIMC Cinema Theater Census also shows a gradual increase in recent years in the population residing in municipalities with cinemas. Practically two out of every three Spaniards (63.8%, +2.6 points compared to 2016) reside in a town that has at least one cinema. Likewise, the number of municipalities with cinemas has also increased to 496 (5 more than in 2024 and 59 more than in 2016), which represents 6.1% of the total. This has caused both the number of municipalities with cinemas and the population residing in them to reach maximum levels since 2006. On average, there are approximately 1.5 locations and 7 theaters per municipality with cinemas.

On the other hand, 69.4% of the rooms (2,471) are located in towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Furthermore, 94.7% of the people who live in these municipalities have a cinema in their area, compared to individuals in towns of less than 50,000 inhabitants, where only 28.5% have one.

Las Communities with the highest number of rooms are Andalusia (647), Catalonia (576) and Madrid (544), and together they bring together practically half of those existing in Spain. The ranking by province is led by Madrid (544 rooms), followed by Barcelona (379), Valencia (216), Alicante (165), Seville (151), Málaga (132), Murcia (126) and Cádiz (118).

In Spain, there are approximately 73 movie theaters per million inhabitants, one less than in the previous delivery of the Census and 3 less than the figure from ten years ago. The communities with the highest density of rooms, with 78 or more per million inhabitants, are: La Rioja (114), the Basque Country (89), Murcia (80), the Valencian Community (78) and Madrid (78). As for the provinces with the highest density of rooms, they are, in order, La Rioja, Salamanca, Tarragona, Soria, Guipúzcoa and Ciudad Real, which equal or exceed 95 rooms per million inhabitants. On the opposite side, there are the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla (47) and the communities of the Canary Islands (56), Extremadura (62), Asturias (64) and Galicia (65). On the other hand, the provinces that have a lower concentration of rooms per million inhabitants are Melilla, Zamora, Teruel, Segovia, Ourense and Toledo, where none exceeds 50.

Comparing with other countries in our environment and taking the year 2024 as a reference, Spain, with its 74 rooms per million inhabitants, is at the top of the table, above countries such as the United Kingdom (66), Italy (60) or Germany (58). Spain is only surpassed by Ireland (104), France (93), which is characterized by the importance of its cinema, and the Scandinavian countries: Sweden (90), Norway (86), Denmark (83) and Iceland (81).