Cinépolis Buys Latin American Rights to '5 More Minutes' (EXCLUSIVE)

By Daniel Okafor

Cinépolis has taken Latin American rights to Spanish thriller "5 More Minutes" ("5 Minutos Más"), a rare region-wide buy for a company that usually sticks to Mexico. The film stars Javier Cámara, who won Best Supporting Actor at the San Sebastian Film Festival for Pedro Almodóvar's "Talk to Her" era fame — and, more recently, at San Sebastian itself. The deal, revealed at the Morelia Film Festival, lands on Jan. 28 next year, when the company plans a wide Mexican release.

Javier Ruiz Caldera directs. Berto Romero wrote the script and stars. It's a time-warping thriller, which in industry terms means high-concept genre — exactly what Cinépolis wants.

Why the unusual deal?

"We normally pick up only Mexican rights to films about 90% of the time but we see this as a high concept genre film that has the potential to travel exceptionally well," said Miguel Rivera, Cinépolis VP of global programming and content. He spoke to Variety at Morelia alongside Karla Marti, senior manager of theatrical distribution, and creative executive Francisca Barraza.

Rivera added: "We're looking for fresh, original films across various genres."

The buy fits a bigger strategy. Cinépolis wants to raise its output of Mexican films to 12 a year, boarding some projects at the development stage. The math explains the urgency:

• Mexican films now hold a 3%–4% market share at home.
• Pre-pandemic, the average was 10%.
• Overall attendance has grown healthily — just not for local titles.

What else is on the slate?

Cinépolis has three films at Morelia, including the opening night selection "Campeón Gabacho" by Jonas Cuarón, set for release across 600 screens in Mexico and Central America. Box office overall is having its second-best year since the COVID slump, though still short of the 2013 peak, helped by "The Super Mario Brothers Movie," "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," Rivera said.

Then there's the genre pipeline:

• Nov. 26: Colombian thriller "El diablo sabe tu nombre" ("The Devil Knows Your Name") by Andrés Beltrán, about a documentary filmmaking couple who risk their lives investigating an alleged possession and exorcism.
• April: "Return to Me" ("Regresa") from "Km. 31" director Rigoberto Castañeda, following a grieving mother who finds a cult on sacred Rarámuri land that claims it can revive her dead son.

Can Mexican cinema rebuild its audience?

CEO Alejandro Ramirez is blunt about the problem. "While people have returned to cinemas for Hollywood blockbusters, it's been harder to bring them back for local productions. So, we're working hard to rebuild that audience and keep Mexican cinema growing," he said.

Streaming, in his view, rewired the habit. "The number of Mexican film titles has rebounded, but box office revenues haven't followed. The pandemic changed viewing habits: audiences have grown accustomed to watching Mexican films, especially comedies, on streaming platforms rather than in theaters," he observed.

Expansion has turned selective. Cinépolis now opens roughly 60 to 70 screens a year worldwide, down from about 300 before the pandemic, having permanently surrendered some locations during COVID.

How big is Cinépolis, really?

By screen count, it ranks third globally. By tickets sold, it claims first. 2025 figures from Cinépolis and other exhibitors:

• AMC: 9,640 screens; 219.4 million admissions.
• Wanda (China): 8,743 screens; 212.8 million admissions.
• Cinépolis: 6,853 screens; 256.4 million admissions.

Per screen, Cinépolis averages 37,417 admissions, against AMC's 22,761 and Wanda's 25,117.

"We're on track to sell more tickets than any other cinema circuit in the world. While we don't have the largest number of screens, we lead in ticket sales and have the highest attendance per screen globally," Ramirez said. New cinemas are planned through 2029.

His verdict on the medium's future: "If cinema survived a two-year global pandemic, I don't think it's going anywhere. It was the ultimate stress test, and we've come through it. Let's just hope there are no more pandemics."

Diplomacy and the French connection

Last September, Ramirez attended the inaugural Lumière Summit, presided over by France's President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. "It was refreshing to see France and South Korea give cinema and the communal big-screen experience such prominence at the highest level of government," he said.

After a meeting with Macron, Cinépolis signed an agreement with Unifrance to expand the French Film Tour — launched in Mexico 30 years ago, now reaching 49.5 million moviegoers across 90 cities — to Spain, India, Indonesia and Chile in 2027. "We also want to replicate France's success in visual literacy and audience development, while bringing more Mexican cinema to international markets, including Europe," he said.

He cites France's My Class at the Cinema program, which takes 2.5 million children and teenagers to cinemas annually, as the model worth copying.

The Morelia Film Festival opened Oct. 16 and runs through Oct. 25. A time-bending Spanish thriller opening in January is a modest bet on a simple idea: that Mexican screens can again sell Mexican — and Spanish — stories.