From January 1st to 30th June of this year, Portuguese cinemas had "a sharp decrease in gross revenue and in the number of spectators, of 64.7 percent and 65.7 percent, respectively", compared to the same period of 2020, with a total of 4.9 million euros received for the 881,262 entries registered in the rooms. The ICA highlights, however, "the growth of these indicators since the opening of cinemas" in April, after the closure during the second period of confinement to contain covid-19, from 15 January to 18 April this year.

This fact means that the highest volume of revenues and audience in the theater was verified mainly in May and June, in an upward trend, with 319,448 spectators and 1.8 million euros at the box office, from 1st to 31st May, and with close to 475,000 spectators, and around 2.7 million euros at the box office, from the 1st to the 30th of June. The accumulated data for the first half of this year, however, continues to show a sharp drop in relation to the same period last year, when the number of spectators approached 2.6 million and box office revenues were around 13.9 million euros, benefiting from the movement of the first two and a half months, prior to the declaration of the covid-19 pandemic and the confinement that brought the activity to zero in the months of April and May.

This year, until the end of June, the most watched movie by the Portuguese in cinemas was "Fast and Furious 9", by Justin Lin, with 118,224 viewers, accumulated in just one week, from the opening, on 24 June, until the end of the month. This was followed by "The Conjuring 3: The Devil's Work", by Michael Chaves, with 75,330 viewers, since its opening, on 3rd June, and "Cruella", by Craig Gillespie, with 62,978 viewers, premiered on 27th May.

Chloe Zhao's award-winning 'Nomadland - Surviving in America', who topped the rankings last month, dropped to fourth with 55,666 viewers at the end of June from 51,229 in May. The most watched Portuguese film, until the end of June, was "Prazer, camaradas!", by José Filipe Costa, premiered on 27 May, with 2,521 viewers, followed by "Listen", by Ana Rocha de Sousa, whose premiere has already been made. had happened in October 2020, with a total of 1,147 viewers this year.

In third place, in the national ranking, is Manuela Serra's "The Movement of Things", premiered on 17 June, which, in the second half of the month, mobilized 1,053 spectators. The documentary, completed in 1985 and awarded at the time at festivals such as Mannheim, Germany, has only now reached Portuguese cinemas.

During the first half of the year, exhibitors, in general, showed falls around and above 50 percent, both in revenue and in viewers, with the exception of Medeia Filmes, which manages the cinema Nimas (Lisbon), and Nitrato Filmes, which manages cinema Trindade (Porto), whose losses were between 30 percent and 40 percent , compared to the same period of 2020.

In the scope of cinematographic distribution, NOS Lusomundo, Cinemundo and Big Picture 2 continue to account for 87.7 percent of the market, in a universe in which more than a dozen companies operate. The films from these three distributors represent around 4.3 million euros of the total of 4.9 million revenues for the first half, of which 3.1 million euros are from NOS Lusomundo.