All the good movies have been made. -- Targets 1968
Argentina's film industry is known all over Latin America and many of its films have gained global recognition. Local films have been nominated five times for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Only 16 countries have produced more Oscar-nominated films, according to The Film Experience. Argentina won an Oscar in 1985 for The Official Story.
But none of that is helping to reel in audiences at local theaters, where ticket sales have been falling constantly in recent years.
The average Argentine goes to the theater less than once a year, an industry source told The Argentine Post. In contrast, the average American goes 6 times a year, according to a study by the Motion Picture Association of America. Europeans went to see an average of 1.8 movies last year, according to a Council of Europe study. The French are Europe's top movie-goers, with the average Frenchman going to see 2.8 films last year.
In 2001, when Argentina was on the brink of an economic meltdown, theaters sold 30.9 million tickets. Despite a staggering recession in 2002, nationwide sales rose to 31.5 million. The upward trend continued through 2004, when Argentines bought a record 44.4 million tickets.
But in 2005 sales began to drop and they have not recovered. Theaters sold more than 10 million fewer tickets last year than they did in 2004.
As sales have fallen, ticket prices have risen. A full price ticket at the Village Recoleta, which sells more tickets than any other theater in the nation, cost 8 pesos in 2001. The same ticket now costs 17 pesos, or 113% more than before the economic collapse.As measured in dollars, Village ticket prices plummeted in 2002 but have been rising each year since. Prices went from US $8 before Argentina’s 2001 currency devaluation to $2 in 2002. They have since rebounded to US $5.40 today. The average ticket in the U.S. costs $6.88, up almost 22% from 2001. (Of course, ticket prices in the U.S. vary within cities and states, just as they do in Argentina. The Argentine Post was unable to find a national average price for Argentina.)
"It's hard to be sure that people are seeing fewer movies because of higher prices. Historically, ticket sales are determined by the quality of movies and the number of blockbusters released each year," said the industry source. "These factors are much more decisive than ticket prices."
Indeed, after a record year in 2004, worldwide ticket sales fell by almost 8% in 2005, indicating that Argentina was not alone in seeing sales drop. But since then sales have largely recovered in most countries while they have continued to decline in Argentina. One possible explanation for this is the availability of inexpensive, high-quality pirated movies.
"We can say for sure that pirated films are affecting sales," said the industry source. "Meanwhile, an enormous number of people are buying Home Theaters and staying at home to watch movies."
In March the Argentine Video Editors Union (UAV), together with city officials, carried out "pirated DVD" raids throughout Buenos Aires. They targeted "trucho" DVD stores and kiosks that sell pirated DVDs. In total, they confiscated 6,545 pirated movies recorded on CDs and DVDs.
Seven out of every 10 DVDs sold in Argentina are pirated, according to the UAV.
The UAV estimates the sale of pirated DVDs at 350 million pesos annually. That is equivalent to about half of all the DVDs sold legally in Argentina each year. Pirated DVDs are sold in every neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, scores of online catalogs offer thousands of high-quality DVDs, including the latest unreleased Hollywood blockbusters, for as little as 3.5 pesos. Many of these businesses offer home delivery, making it easier than ever to buy pirated DVDs without even leaving your home. In fact, at many online stores, the more you buy, the less you pay per DVD. What's more, customer service at pirated DVD stores is often better than it is at legal businesses such as Blockbuster.
The growth in pirated DVD sales has made it almost impossible for the world's leading video rental chain, Blockbuster Video, to operate successfully in Argentina. To survive, Blockbuster has abandoned its business model, closed stores, and begun advertising itself as a kind of "maxi kiosk" that sells candy, soda, ice cream and other goodies. Many pirated DVD stores now offer a larger selection of movies than does Blockbuster. Such stores are profiting from the demand for cheap DVDs, but their gains appear to be hurting profits at local movie theaters.
“Profits from this business are not rising because, even though ticket prices are going up, our costs are going up too,” the industry official said.
As measured in dollars, Argentine theaters earned US $ 180,117,000 from ticket sales last year, compared with US $247,000,000 in 2000. So while ticket prices have increased 113%, dollar-based ticket income has actually declined 27%. This is important because key operating costs - such as the acquisition of movie reels - are in dollars.
Most of the movies shown in Argentine theaters were made in the U.S., though many were made Asia, Europe and other regions. Argentine films, while highly praised by local media critics, almost always do poorly at the box office. Nonetheless, INCCA, the national film and audio-visual arts institute, forces theaters to show local films each year. This, industry experts say, has made it harder for theaters to make money.
"The INCCA obligates cinemas to show a certain number of films...even if there is not a single decent film available to show," the source said. "If it's necessary, we have to show films that have been made by students."
Argentina has a "screen quota law" forces theaters to show local films. "This law is not in anyway positive," said the source. "Just think about it. Why would we not be interested in showing an Argentine film? If the film is acceptably good, we will want to show it. To give you an idea of how bad this law is, consider this: In the theaters where we are forced to show Argentine films, the occupation rate is exactly five times lower than it is in any other theater."
Link: INCCA
Link: Cine Nacional
Link: MPAA
Link: UAV
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