Portuguese cinemas registered close to one million spectators in June, which represents an increase of 10% over the same month of 2022, and brings the figures for the first half of the year to 5.4 million, according to official data.
According to statistics released today by the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), Portuguese cinemas received almost 975,000 spectators last month, the second best number this year in terms of admissions, after the barrier of one million was exceeded in May, and the month of January added 909,000 tickets sold.
These 975,000 spectators represent, however, a decrease of almost 125,000 compared to last May, when theaters added 1.094 million admissions, which had not been achieved since December 2022. A year ago, in June, cinemas welcomed nearly 886,000 spectators.
In terms of revenue, June’s €5.75 million brought gross box office receipts for the first half of this year to €32 million.
A year earlier, for the same period, cinemas, with a total of 4.02 million spectators, had €23.11 million in revenue.
In the first half of 2019, the last year before the pandemic and lockdown periods, ICA’s statistical data indicated a total of 6.68 million viewers, and a revenue of €35.6 million.
Louis Leterrier’s “Furious Speed X”, which has amassed 665,514 admissions since its premiere in May, is the most-watched movie in the first half of this year, followed on the list by James Cameron’s “Avatar” with a total of 466,034 viewers.
In third place on the list is “Super Mario Bros: The Movie”, by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic and Pierre Leduc, with an accumulation of 454 thousand spectators, before the new version of “The Little Mermaid”, by Rob Marshall, with 310 thousand, and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, by James Gunn, which closes the ‘top 5’ of the semester with 232 thousand.
The list of the most watched Portuguese films of the year, until June 30, is led by “Mal Viver”, by João Canijo, with 15,074 spectators, followed by “Amadeo”, by Vicente Alves do Ó, with 13,071 entries, and the Oscar nominee “Ice Merchants”, by João Gonzalez, seen by 12,353 people.
In fourth position is the other side of João Canijo’s project, “Viver Mal”, with 10,229 tickets sold.
“Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures”, by Marco Martins, closes the list of the five most watched Portuguese films in the first half of this year, with a total of 6,525 spectators at the end of June.