The Arrábida Shopping hosts the largest cinema complex in Portugal, with twenty screens. However, the owners of the shopping center have this year requested the closure of nine of these, leaving eleven operational.
The request, which the Ministry of Culture has approved, is based on the fact that the current number of cinema screens is not economically viable, given the number of viewers and the commercial film offerings. Therefore, their operation in this capacity is not justified, according to the IGAC.
This multiplex in Gaia, with more than 4,000 seats, is managed by UCI Cinemas, the third-largest cinema exhibitor in Portugal by the number of screens. The company did not respond to Lusa’s request for comments regarding potential plans and a timeline for restructuring the screens.
Contacted by Lusa, the Sonae Sierra business group, which owns Arrábida Shopping and other shopping centers in the country featuring cinemas, also did not provide details on a possible restructuring of the screens.
“We continually assess the evolution of all our assets and make decisions tailored to the specifics of each center. This way, we ensure the best action in each context and offer an experience that aims to provide the best for visitors and enhance their choices,” Sonae Sierra said in response to Lusa.
IGAC noted that similar requests for the closure of other cinema screens were made this year for shopping centers in Viana do Castelo and Braga, also owned by Sonae Sierra.
In Viana do Castelo, the Ministry of Culture authorized the closure of four screens at the Estação Viana Shopping, which are operated by the exhibitor Cineplace.
In August, regarding these cinemas, a Sonae Sierra spokesperson told Lusa that “for the moment” it would maintain normal operations but acknowledged that “different opportunities within asset management are constantly under review.”
Questioned by Lusa, Cineplace stated that the closure “has no basis” and that they are “developing plans to invest in the modernization of the cinema in Viana do Castelo.”
In Braga, at the Nova Arcada shopping center, a request was made “to convert six of the 12 screens for activities of a different nature,” also managed by Cineplace, but this process “is underway,” said an IGAC source.
According to current law (decree-law 23/2014), the demolition of cinema venues or their conversion to non-cinematographic activities depends on authorization from the government cultural authorities.
The authorization is issued by the Ministry of Culture based on IGAC’s opinions.
According to the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual (ICA), which collects statistical data on cinema exhibitions, the twenty cinemas at Arrábida Shopping attracted 460,533 viewers in 2024, averaging 19 people per session.
In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, those twenty cinema screens welcomed 830,656 viewers, nearly double the 2024 figures. In 2011, the audience surpassed one million viewers (1,048,771 entries) at that multiplex.
On a national level, the commercial exhibition network, with regular daily sessions ensured by private operators, is led by Nos Lusomundo Cinemas, with 218 screens, followed by Cineplace (67 screens) and UCI Cinemas (with 42 screens).
