2009 Box Office Review - Brazil- Part 1
Posted by Ethan on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 in 2009 Global Box Office • South America • (0) Comments • Permalink •
SUMMARY
Brazilian box office rose an astonishing 33% with revenues of R$970m and admissions of 112.6m, 25.7% up from 2008. The Brazilian economic recovery, higher ticket prices from 3D and expanding the dating of films across the calendar all contributed to the improved numbers. There were twenty fewer films in release this year compared to last.
Brazilian films took a 14.2% market share with 84 releases and 16m admissions, topped by Daniel Filho’s comedy sequel “If I Were You 2” which earned R$50.5m, had 5.7m admissions and placed second as the top performer for the year.
At number one was Fox’s “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” with R$81.1m gross and admissions of 9.2m.
Paris Filmes released “Twilight: New Moon” which grossed more in Brazil than all of the rest of Latin America to earn R$45.9m on admissions of 5.6m tickets sold. It was the best opening weekend of the past two years.
With admissions of 5.1m, Sony’s “2012” grossed R$43.6m at the box office for fourth place followed by Warner’s fifth place “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” for earnings of R$36.1m and admissions of 4.5m.
“Avatar” was next with R$35.9 and 3.6m admissions by the end of this year’s play period.
Sony’s “Angels & Demons” grossed R$27.9m and took 3m in admissions followed by a pair from Fox, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” with 3.1m admissions and R$27.3m in earnings and “Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” with a R$21m take and admissions of 2.5m.
Claudio Torres’ “The Invisible Woman” from Warner’s earned R$20.4m with 2.3m admissions and is the only other Brazilian film to finish in the top ten.
HISTORY
Like most of the territories of the world that have a government supported local film industry, there’s much discussion here about the role of that film body. Many critics argue that public funding schemes aimed at the production of arthouse feature films are not designed for mainstream success and that an energizing of the film industry will come if the film body measures success rather than simply existing to support the arts.
In past years Brazilian producers benefitted from government incentives of about R$165 million a year, which took 30 national films released in 2003 up to 82 by 2008. Those incentives yielded tax deductions on profits to local companies, which unfortunately shrunk when the local economy started to spiral downward and industry profits diminished. In order to address the industry criticism and to respond to the nation's filmmaking industry decimation as a result of devaluations, hyperinflation and shifting government policies, the Brazilian cinema agency Ancine introduced a new market-driven incentive scheme. The so-called Sector Fund is a refundable system aimed at increasing the number of Brazilian films able to sell more than 1 million tickets from the current 6 to 8 films to 10 to 12 per year.
The Sector Fund provided R$50 million to the film sector: R$25 million for picture production, R$16 million for funding independent distributors of local pictures and R$8.5 million for P&A this past year. Most feature budgets range from R$1.8m-R$9m.
The Sector Fund gives the government equity in the films it finances and allows government input on the committee that analyzes the applications while the previous incentives were non-refundable. In the future, the Sector Fund believes it will double its financial investment, helping to upgrade to digital exhibition sector that serves the lower and middle income population.
Recent international co-productions to benefit from the programs include Jose Padhilla’s "Elite Squad" (a Brazilian production with U.S. and Argentine backing), Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness" (a Canada/Brazil/Japan co-production) and Marco Bechis' "Birdwatchers" (Italy/Brazil), Henrique Goldman's "Jean Charles," about the Brazilian national who was shot by London police in the wake of the 2005 subway bombings and Andrucha Waddington's "Lope" (a co-production with Spain's Antena 3, Ikiru Films and El Toro Films).
Only 7% of Brazil's 5,564 municipalities have cinemas.
Next: An analysis of Distribution and Genre
Ellen Pittleman, http://hybridentus.com, is a veteran studio executive based in Los Angeles. Most recently, she served as SVP, International Co-Productions and Worldwide Acquisitions for Paramount Pictures. She also launched the DVD Premiere group there, with films including Jonathan Demme’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold” and the sequel to the $100MM+ “Save the Last Dance.” Working from a marketing and distribution perspective, she consults on strategic planning, deal negotiation, acquisitions, film library valuation and feature development with clients from Rio to London to Beijing. She’s also currently developing a feature on George Foreman’s comeback years, among other projects.