Tuesdays are the new Fridays for the cinema, how a public measure has revitalized the theaters daily

After the pandemic, leisure habits changed radically. Many They blamed the platforms, Others saw the enemy in the bars… the truth is that people forgot to go back to movie theaters causing a pronounced drop in spectators, especially in those who had been fundamental for the theaters, the adult audience, away from specific phenomena, and who came week after week to see more cinephile films. Three years later, that gap has not been fixed, and everyone is looking for solutions to return to that old normality.

Recovering that adult audience was one of the great fights for film exhibitors, and from the Ministry of Culture They realized that they had to come to the rescue of movie theaters and help them in that mission. Hence the ‘Tuesdays at the Movies’ initiative was born, which began in July 2023, and through which those over 65 years of age can go to theaters for only two euros. Hence the initiative quickly became known as ‘Senior Tuesdays’.

Its success was overwhelming. The Federation of Film Exhibitors quantified the increase in attendance on Tuesdays at 49% compared to the previous year. It went from 2.7 million to four million viewers. It also improved by 23% compared to 2019. In total, in those first months almost a million viewers benefited from the program.

If it was already successful in 2023, in 2024 it has been consolidated as a fundamental initiative, also for Spanish cinema. On Tuesday, October 1, the three most viewed films were, thanks to the attendance of this audience, Spanish: I am Nevenka, The Red Virgin and The 47. Along with the other Spanish film, The sparkles, They generated, together, close to 250,000 euros, equivalent to a screen share of 38% of the total and 50,000 viewers.

The sparkles, For example, he placed in fifth position making 52,300 euros, a figure almost equal to what he achieved on Saturday. That is to say, for an adult film, Tuesdays are now as important as a weekend day. 120,000 spectators went to the cinema, a figure that represents almost a third of the people who did so during the weekend. The straw that fills that success has been experienced with The infiltrator, he thriller by Arantxa Echevarría about a mole woman in ETA that this Tuesday became number one at the box office with a collection of 250,000 euros. On Friday, opening day, it stood at 220,000.

The Federation of Film Exhibitors of Spain (FECE) describes the experience as “very positive, without a doubt.” “We are managing to mobilize the public that was most affected by the pandemic and that took the longest to return to the cinema, and, in addition, we are seeing how this initiative is providing an important boost for Spanish and European cinema, with these films being the most viewed. for the elderly,” says Luis Gil, general director of the institution, who also points out that not only those who left have returned, but the figures indicate that “new spectators are joining.”

They do not believe that attendance has to do only with a question of price, since the presence of the public is still greater on the weekend, when there are no discounts, but they do believe that these policies of attracting a less frequent audience to the theaters should be moved “to others” targets, like young people.” What they have no doubt about is that the promotion must continue.

At the moment it will be active until December 31, and although everyone trusts that it will continue, they also ask for foresight so as not to leave a few months empty: “The desirable thing would be for it to be considered as a multi-year project to avoid the interruption that occurs since the end of the December 31 until it is launched again with a new call. This situation currently causes some very important months of non-application of the program, in the first quarter of the year, where it would be very well used.”

The Ministry of Culture assures that “the will of the ICAA is to maintain this measure for 2025, as it has already been transferred to the sector, receiving its support” and they describe it as “highly positive.” Data from the measure are also advanced “in the first four months of the program’s validity during 2024, between May and August”: 600,000 senior viewers, 22% of the total. “The initiative is helping to recover audiences over 65 years of age who, in part, had stopped going to the movies during the pandemic and post-pandemic and are returning to going to theaters,” they point out.

Intelligent help

The figures are not only beneficial for cinemas, but also for the companies that distribute this type of films. The Association of Independent Film Distributors (ADICINE) believes that if in 2023 “it took a little while to get started, now everyone knows it.” “The habit has been created for the public, who now even waits until Tuesday to go to the cinema to see these titles. It has been noticed that our films suddenly sneak into the top ten on Tuesdays,” explains its president Lara Pérez Camiña. Tuesdays also serve as a track to “see the word of mouth that the movies will have.”

It would be desirable for it to be a multi-year project to avoid the interruption that occurs from the end of December 31 until it is started again.

Luis Gil
— General Director of FECE,

“It’s not that a Tuesday is now better than a Saturday, but it is better than Friday, that’s for sure,” he emphasizes and gives conclusive data, there have been Tuesdays in August with “a million or so people attending the theaters.” That is why they are united in the request that this measure not be temporary, but that it continue and be promoted to continue making itself known. Adolfo Blanco, head of the Verdi cinemas, one of the nerve centers in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​has the same opinion and is confident that the measure “will undoubtedly be maintained.” “It is absolutely necessary that it be maintained. In the Ministry of Culture it has to be an absolutely priority measure,” he adds.

He describes it as very “intelligent” help, because it also helps to reverse opinion on subsidies. “It is very easy to attack a subsidy that goes to companies or the world of cinema, but here the viewer is being subsidized. That’s the most popular thing to do. Who can question this if the main beneficiary is the citizen? I hope this measure lasts for many years. They know that this is a medicine that is not about administering it for a couple of years, but that this is a very complicated sector and here they have hit upon a key that I think they will not take long to copy in other countries,” he says.

In the Verdi the result is incontestable, with “the weekdays being very similar to the weekend, something that did not happen before.” “We are in figures close to the best times for older people. It is true that weekdays are quite promoted, but in terms of spectators, practically from Monday to Thursday the same or even some more are achieved a few weeks than from Friday to Sunday, and the turning point of having more people on weekdays Every day it has been on Tuesdays to the movies.” A demonstration of how measures with public money can reverse a situation that scared movie theaters.