The Senior Film program, promoted by the Ministry of Culture, through the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), brought 1,690,758 senior viewers to cinemas throughout the national territory in 2024, which represents 33.4% of the total number of tickets sold. In the case of Cantabria there were 14,066 spectators who went to the cinemas in the region, with an increase of 54.3% compared to the previous year.
At the national level, according to data from the Federation of Spanish Cinemas (FECE), in this second edition of the measure, which took place between May and December 2024, 766,034 senior viewers attended the cinemas more than in the first edition of 2023, which represents an increase of 82%.
Through direct subsidies to cinemas, this measure promotes the right of access to cultural diversity for people aged 65 and over, so that they can attend the cinema on Tuesdays at a reduced price of 2 euros. And in light of the positive data, the Ministry of Culture is already working on the processing of the third edition, with the forecast that it will be underway in April.
Thanks to this initiative, Tuesdays have been consolidated as the third best day of the week, after Saturday and Wednesday, according to FECE. In addition, general attendance at cinemas on Tuesdays for all types of audiences, during the Senior Film campaign period, increased by 23% compared to the previous year’s edition. It went from 4,092,992 total spectators on Tuesdays in 2023, to 5,051,848 total spectators on Tuesdays in 2024.
In the distribution throughout the year, the last months of the campaign (September to December) doubled the number of senior spectators of the first months (May to August), becoming October, with 358,493 senior spectators, in the month with more attendance. In this edition, it was introduced as a novelty that tickets could be purchased both at the ticket offices of the exhibition rooms and by electronic means.
The Spanish premieres, among the most viewed movies
Among the films chosen by the senior viewers are Spanish films such as ‘La Infiltrada’, ‘El 47’, ‘Casa en flames’, ‘La cuarto de al lado’, ‘Marco’, ‘Soy Nevenka’ or ‘La virgen roja’.
The autonomous communities with the most senior spectators have been Catalonia with 427,892; the Community of Madrid, with 358,699; and the Valencian Community, with 211,362. The distribution of senior viewers by the other autonomous communities has been as follows: 124,460 in Andalusia, 83,574 in Aragon, 27,414 in the Principality of Asturias, 20,826 in the Balearic Islands, 19,762 in the Canary Islands, 14,066 in Cantabria, 122,456 in Castile and Leon,
35,351 in Castilla-La Mancha, 149 between Ceuta and Melilla, 14,127 in Extremadura, 43,863 in Galicia, 13,341 in La Rioja, 20,985 in the Region of Murcia, 31,040 in Navarre, and 121,391 in the Basque Country.
Back to movie theaters
The Senior Cinema measure, promoted since 2023 by the Government of Spain, began from the consideration that cinemas play a crucial cultural, social and economic role, both for the film industry and for the cities in which they are located. In addition, in the current audiovisual context, where there have been great changes in consumption habits related to new technologies and streaming platforms, the need to establish a public policy of incentive to recover and reintroduce cinematographic habits in the public was made clear, especially after the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the pandemic, according to a FECE survey, of all population bands, it was detected that people over 65 years of age stood out because they were
The group that was taking the longest time to return to the cinema attendance habits in pre-COVID-19 cinemas. Thus, significant differences were observed between age groups: if 49.3% of people aged 20 to 24 went to the cinema at least once a year between 2021 and 2022, that percentage fell to 6% in the older population.