An avid market
Strong consumer habits help to explain the outstanding performance for regional standards. Mexico ranked first – by far – in terms of movie theater attendance in Latin American countries in 2021. Just before the COVID-19 outbreak, the country recorded one of the highest cinema penetration rates in the region: nearly three out of 10 Mexicans said they went to the movies in 2019. That same year, attendance at domestic films' screenings in Mexico peaked at over 35 million tickets sold, only to plummet by about 80 percent in the following years amidst the global health crisis. It remains to be seen how the industry fares after the pandemic.On the global stage
Regardless of the coronavirus' impact, Mexican movies remained a key item on the theatrical menu. Throughout most of the 2010s, and now also into the 2020s, at least one-fifth of all feature films released in Mexico consisted of domestic productions. In 2022, these movies grossed 390 million Mexican pesos at the box offices across the country, down from a record 1.8 billion pesos three years earlier. And their bankability knows no boundaries. Throughout the decade preceding the global spread of COVID-19, Mexico exported an average of 108 movies per year. In 2021, however, the figure stood at just 58, leaving Mexico with the mission to come back with titles with the stature of "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006), "Instructions Not Included" (2013), or "Roma" (2018).
