The world’s third-largest exhibitor, after AMC and China’s Wanda, is reinforcing its commitment to fostering Mexican cinema through its 11-year-old distribution arm. In terms of admissions, it beats all its counterparts globally, says Cinépolis CEO Alejandro Ramirez In a rare move, Mexico’s exhibition-distribution giant Cinépolis has landed Latin American rights to Spanish buzz title “5 More Minutes” (“5 Minutos Más”) starring Javier Cámara, who took home the Best Supporting Actor prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival. According to Barraza, Cinépolis is casting its net wide to work with both established and budding talent.
The company plans to release Javier Ruiz Caldera’s time-warping thriller, written and starring Berto Romero, on Jan. 28 next year, which it hopes will be an exceptional time for Mexican cinema. Cinépolis aims to increase its slate of Mexican pics to 12 a year, boarding some at their development phase. Overall attendance has grown at a healthy clip, but not for homegrown pics, which are capturing a mere 3% to 4% market share compared to an average 10% share in pre-pandemic years.
Cinépolis has three films playing during Morelia, including opening night film “Campeón Gabacho” by Jonas Cuarón, which it plans to release across 600 screens in Mexico aside from Central America. In terms of box office results, this year has been the second best since the COVID slump although it has not quite reached its 2013 peak when “Inside Out” sold 25 million tickets, said Rivera. On Nov. 26, it releases Colombian Andrés Beltrán’s “El diablo sabe tu nombre” (translated to “The Devil Knows Your Name”) about a documentary filmmaking couple who risk their lives investigating an alleged possession and exorcism case.
Also bolstering its genre slate in April is the latest from “Km. 31” director Rigoberto Castañeda. Titled “Return to Me” (Regresa”), it follows a grieving mother who, after the loss of her son, visits a remote Mexican village where she comes upon a cult on sacred Rarámuri land that claims it can bring her son back from the dead. So, we’re working hard to rebuild that audience and keep Mexican cinema growing,” said Cinépolis CEO, Alejandro Ramirez.
The pandemic changed viewing habits: audiences have grown accustomed to watching Mexican films, especially comedies, on streaming platforms rather than in theaters,” he observed. Cinépolis is steadily recovering from the devastating impact of COVID-19, which forced it to close cinemas and permanently give up some locations. At the moment, we’re opening around 60 or 70 screens worldwide each year, which is much less than before the pandemic when we’d open an average of 300 screens a year,” said Ramirez.
According to 2025 statistics sourced from Cinépolis and other exhibitors, AMC reigns worldwide in terms of screen count, with 9,640, followed by China’s Wanda, with 8,743 and Cinepolis, 6,853. While we don’t have the largest number of screens, we lead in ticket sales and have the highest attendance per screen globally,” Ramirez pointed out. The same statistics show Cinépolis reporting 256.4 million admissions in 2025 compared to AMC’s 219.4 million and Wanda’s 212.8 million.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
