After years of decline, Portugal’s movie theatres staged an impressive comeback in 2015 with movie-goers and revenue both up by 20%.
According to Económico website, the industry hasn’t had so many spectators since 1975.
In total, 14.5 million people saw animated film ‘Minions’ (937,383), followed by action film ‘Furious 7’ (832,800), Portuguese movie ‘Pátio das Cantigas’ (606,555), the critically-bashed but successful ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (501,600) and the latest James Bond ‘007 Spectre’ (447,178).
Numbers could even have been better as ‘Star Wars VI: The Force Awakens’ – perhaps the most anticipated film of recent years – only premiered in Portugal just before Christmas, and was still seen by 408,622 people.
Portugal’s cinema and audiovisual institute (ICA) revealed the growing numbers also mean revenue increased from €62 million in 2014 to €74.9 million in 2015.
There’s also good news for Portuguese movies, which were seen by 940,000 people – the best numbers since 1975, writes Lusa news agency.
Further data shows Algarve cinemas registered 842,937 movie-goers and revenue of €4.2 million.
