Spain's Indie Distributors Post 45% Box Office Rise, Merci Market Grows

By Daniel Okafor

Spanish independent distributors saw box office receipts rise 45% through September, according to Rentrak figures presented at Valladolid's Merci market. That's the good news. The rest of the conversation was about everything the number doesn't fix.

Members of Adicine, Spain's leading association of independent film distributors, drove the surge. Elastica Films' "La Bola Negra," released Sept. 25, has added further momentum with a blockbuster theatrical run since. Momentum, however, hasn't eased the fight for screens.

At Merci's sixth edition, held Oct. 28-30 at Valladolid's Broadway cinemas, distributors, exhibitors and streaming executives confronted crowded release calendars, last-minute bookings and a theatrical market that increasingly leans on a handful of hits.

Can the mid-range film survive?

"There are 14 or 15 releases every week, Spanish and international. Neither audiences nor cinemas can absorb that," warned Wanda Visión's Miguel Morales at the roundtable "Cinemas, Distributors and Platforms: Together for Audiences."

Morales pointed to Spanish and French comedies that once drew 100,000 admissions but now struggle to reach 10,000. Screen bookings can remain unconfirmed until the week before release, he added, undermining publicity campaigns.

"Sometimes 80% of a weekend's box office may come from just one film. That's not healthy either," said Beta Fiction Spain CEO Mercedes Gamero. "We need variety, and those mid-range films must also be able to survive and become profitable."

Big releases can lift smaller titles. Cines Yelmo programming director Eva Rekettyei cited the spillover effect from summer hits "The Odyssey" and "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." But capacity is capacity. "As exhibitors, we cannot absorb everything being made, not just in Spain but around the world. Our space is finite," she said.

How long should films stay exclusive to cinemas?

Exhibitors and platforms agreed that a theatrical run (the period a film plays exclusively in cinemas before streaming) creates value beyond ticket sales. They disagreed on duration.

"We feed off cinemas," said Movistar Plus editorial director Íñigo Trojaola. His platform premieres around 280 films a year, roughly 180 of them independent, yet cannot accommodate everything offered.

Exclusive windows, sharply shortened during the pandemic, have gradually lengthened again, according to Octavio Alzola, programming and marketing director at the arthouse chain Cines Renoir. "It's not about setting a number," Alzola argued. "It's about recognizing that the time a film spends in theaters adds value."

Streaming executives defended theatrical exclusivity but pushed for flexibility when films vanish quickly from screens. "Sometimes that window is so rigid that it condemns films to silence," Trojaola warned.

Filmin COO and co-founder José Antonio de Luna raised the piracy risk when a title leaves theaters but remains legally unavailable for months. "Not all films are alike," he said, calling for approaches suited to different releases.

Cooperation, oddly, already works. Oliver Laxe's "Sirât" was still playing at Cines Renoir when Movistar Plus began promoting its forthcoming streaming premiere — and the campaign brought more people into theaters. "When the film's premiere on Movistar was announced and the campaign began, we noticed that more people came to the cinema to see it that week," Alzola recalled.

Who came to Merci this year?

The market, organized by the Valladolid Film Festival (Seminci) and Adicine, drew an estimated 215 professionals, up from 190 last year. Buyers followed a slate of 26 films set for Spanish theatrical release between late 2026 and mid-2027.

Representatives from RTVE, Movistar Plus, Filmin and HBO attended, alongside regional public broadcasters including first-time participant ETB Basque television.

"We have people here who actually make the decisions," said market coordinator Olimpia Pont Cháfer. Deals may close later, but screenings can introduce buyers to films they had not previously considered. As acquisition prices rise, Spanish indie distributors are increasingly joining forces to buy films and share release costs, bookings and marketing, Pont Cháfer added.

Cienfuegos' legacy and the La Meseta Awards

This was Merci's first edition since former Seminci director José Luis Cienfuegos died in December 2025. The market's career award now bears his name and went to Otilio García Gobeo, a leading figure at Golem Cinemas and Golem Distribución for more than four decades.

At Friday's closing, the second La Meseta Distribution Awards honored independent release campaigns. Silencio Cinema won the €5,000 ($5,900) first prize for Claudia Estrada Tarascó's "Salen las lobas," while Elastica took the $4,700 second prize for "La Gradiva."

With buyers multiplying, windows loosening and distributors pooling costs, Spain's indie sector is bargaining collectively for the middle ground it keeps being told no longer pays.