Mexico: the powerhouse in Latin American cinema
The hegemony of Mexico in the region's film industry precedes the coronavirus outbreak. Mexican cinema benefits from a solid domestic market and a tradition of exporting movies to meet global demands. However, COVID-19 did pose unprecedented challenges to the segment. Domestic films' share in Mexico's box office gross reached a record-low 3.7 percent in 2021. The average figure for most of the 2010s was about four percentage points higher. Exports seemed to catch up faster. The number of Mexican movies released out of Mexico grew by over 130 percent in 2021. The 58 titles that premiered overseas that year remained far from pre-pandemic standards. Still, if the annual figure continues to increase at the same pace, it could surpass 2019 and 2018 numbers by the end of 2022.Headliners and extras in the Latin American movie market
Despite being the largest economy in the region by population and gross domestic product (GDP), Brazil still struggles to solidify its film industry. In 2021, only one out of five Brazilians went to the movies monthly. If that share seemed low, it was not because of COVID-19: the 2021 figure was the highest since mid-2016. Argentina continued to pursue a reputation for collecting awards for audiovisual productions. And quality did not hinder quantity. During the two years preceding the pandemic, the annual number of Argentine film releases surpassed 200. After plummeting amidst the first year of the outbreak, the figure skyrocketed by over 300 percent in 2021, suggesting a swift recovery already in the early 2020s. Meanwhile, Ecuador astonished its neighbors and ascended to Latin America's top five markets by cinema attendance in 2021. That was a surprise, as the country ranks eighth in population, with about as many inhabitants as Guatemala, where theaters sold over three times fewer tickets than in Ecuador.
