According to the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), in 2024 and the first half of 2025, the districts of Beja, Bragança, and Portalegre recorded the lowest audience levels in the country and offered the least diversified film options for the public.
Currently, the cinema exhibition landscape in the country is evaluated through statistical data produced by ICA, based on ticket sales information provided by theaters, exhibitors, including companies, municipalities, film clubs, or other associations.
In a nationwide analysis, the data is necessarily partial since there are municipalities that do not transmit computerized data to the ICA. Thus, they may offer cinema in municipal cultural facilities, but the information does not reach the institute.
Furthermore, “there are venues that open, others that close some theaters, theaters that only report their box office data at the end of the year, among other aspects, so they may not be reflected in the interim calculations,” a source from the ICA explained to Lusa.
Nevertheless, in 2024 and 2025 (with data compiled until September 1), the residents of Beja, Bragança, and Portalegre did not have regular and diverse offerings in several theaters.
According to the ICA, in 2024, these three districts had a ratio of 0.1 spectators per inhabitant. Beja, Bragança, and Portalegre recorded 30,001 cinema admissions for a population of about 377,000 inhabitants.
For instance, the district of Guarda registered 37,911 spectators in 2024, benefiting from the presence of four cinemas operated by private exhibitor Cineplace in the district capital.
In Beja city, cinema exhibitions were provided by the Pax Julia municipal theater and the privately operated Melius Beja, which closed for renovation on August 1 with no reopening date.
According to the ICA, during the 52 weeks of 2024, Pax Julia scheduled 27 sessions, one for each programmed film. As of September 1 this year, this municipal facility had held 14 sessions.
In Portalegre, the cinema offering comes from the Arts and Entertainment Center, which hosted 109 sessions and 5,022 spectators in 2024.
Bragança, the district capital, did not report any cinema exhibition statistics to the ICA last year, despite having a cultural center and Paulo Quintela Auditorium.
Nationally, based on ICA statistics, there were 563 cinemas in 2024, with 172 in the Lisbon region, 166 in the north, and 122 in the central region. The remaining were distributed with 38 in the Alentejo region, 36 in the Algarve, 15 in the Azores, and 14 in Madeira.
In 2024, 11.8 million spectators attended cinemas, generating 73.3 million euros in revenue. These figures are still below those of 2019, pre-COVID-19 pandemic, when ICA recorded 15.5 million admissions and 83.1 million euros in box office revenue.
NOS Lusomundo Cinemas is the market leader with 218 theaters, followed by Cineplace with 67, and UCI Cinemas with 42, predominantly located in shopping centers.
