• The cinemas of Castilla y León interested in being part of the plan have until this Friday to join it through the website of the Ministry • The main associations of exhibitors have agreed that the preferred day to implement the measure is Tuesday. Cinemas that do not open that day can establish another day as long as it is during the week • Cinemas is one of the few sectors that has not recovered its pre-pandemic figures, being especially significant its fall between over 65 years old

June 21, 2023.- On July 1, the program to encourage people over 65 to go to the cinema for two euros enters into force. The plan developed by the Ministry of Culture and Sport is endowed with 10 million euros and 9.5 million euros will be able to benefit from the initiative.

The cinemas that wish to be part of the program, have until this Friday 25th, at 23:59 hours, to apply for their adhesion to the program. This registration can be made through the website of the Ministry: https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/cultura/areas/cine/ayudas/exhibicion.html

Exhibitors who access the main page of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, must click on the electronic headquarters section and once here do so on the aid section. In the support section, you must click on the fourth option, ‘Subcategory film and audiovisual support’, where another page is opened in which it is specified in the last option ‘Support for cinema exhibition halls’. Once here the cinemas will have the link ‘Link to the procedure’ in which they must identify themselves and complete the data that appear until the completion of the procedure.

The government delegate in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, has encouraged the approximately 50 film exhibitors in the Community to join the initiative. He also recalled that around 625,000 people over the age of 65, 26% of the population of Castilla y León, can take advantage of the measure. “I encourage all our people over 65 to benefit from this measure that allows them to go to the cinemas of our Community for two euros,” he said.

The program is a stimulus project to promote film attendance and support for the film exhibition sector. Of all the cultural sectors, the cinema is one of the few that has not recovered its prepandemic figures, especially noticing the fall of the audience over 65 years old.

The main exhibitor associations (FECE, NAECE and PROMO) have agreed that the preferred day to implement the measure is Tuesday. In the case of those cinemas that do not open that day, it has been agreed that another day is established, always during the week.

Once their registration in the program is formalized, cinemas must communicate the regular price of the entrance of that day, and the Ministry of Culture and Sport will pay the difference between that price and the 2 euros that will be paid by those over 65 years old, up to a maximum of three euros per ticket sold. Public cinemas, X cinemas, or those that already have a price equal to or less than 2 euros for people over 65 years old cannot join. For this program, you are only allowed to sell at the box office, not online.

Those over 65 years of age represent the age group that is taking the longest time to resume cinema attendance habits in pre-pandemic theaters. Thus, there are significant differences between age groups: if 49.3% of young people between the ages of 20 and 24 went to the cinema at least once a year between 2021 and 2022, that percentage falls to 6% in the older population.

As the draft Law on Cinema and Audiovisual Culture states in its explanatory statement, audiovisual culture is an engine of transformation and social and economic development; it contributes to artistic expression and critical, free and creative expression; it models collective imaginaries; it generates identity and community; it expands knowledge of the world; and it reflects and exports an image of the country, while at the same time producing wealth, creating employment and promoting technological progress.

Of all the cultural sectors, the cinema is one of the most affected, even today, by the pandemic. The health measures taken as a result of COVID-19 caused a significant decrease in the average attendance at movie theaters in the Spanish public, an attendance that does not stop recovering. Despite the upturns experienced in 2022, the sector still has approximately 40% fewer viewers than the average for the years 2017 to 2019.