This latest edition of “Film & Figures” presents important developments in Colombia’s film industry in 2015 to both stakeholders in the industry and those outside the country who follow the progress of Colombian film.

With 36 domestic films in theaters, 2015 was the year that Colombia had the highest share of total releases in our 100-year history of filmmaking. Not only that, but it was also the year with the highest admissions (about 56.4 million) and the highest box office receipts (just over 470 billion pesos, or US$160 million dollars), with films showing on a total of 935 screens.

The result can be seen throughout the value chain, building on an ongoing expansion in Colombia’s film industry in recent years. Many observers now believe that these aggregated statistics place Colombia third among all Latin American film industries.

Along with the data described in Film & Figures, Colombia faces major challenges, including the need to create strategies and tools to boost audiences for domestic movies. Although a growing number of local productions now compete with hundreds of foreign titles, there has been a drop in average admissions at Colombian films.

For example, our research in this edition shows that there have been higher admissions at domestic family and comedy films, which have a higher advertising budget. Half of the films released had fewer than 10,000 admissions and spent more than half of their budget on fees.

We invite you to read the latest Film & Figures to find more information about the promotional budgets for last year’s local productions and other essential news.

In preparing this newsletter, we have analyzed the budgets that film producers presented to the Film Development Fund (FDC) for promoting their films for release in domestic theaters. In 11 years, 153 FDC incentive awards have been handed out, including 31 in 2015.

We analyzed the aggregate figures and classified expenses into the following categories:

• Advertising: This includes print media, digital media, radio, and television.


• Promotional materials: posters, banners, postcards, stickers, t-shirts, standing advertising displays, press kits, etc.


• Fees: This includes fees paid to the communications manager, press manager, social media manager, graphic designer, website designer, digital campaign agency, and others.


• DCP and copies: recording or storing films on hard drives and copies of these.


• Creation of the trailer and teaser.


• Expenses related to the premiere: mailing and printing invitations, theater rental, photographer, etc.


• Administrative and logistical expenses: fees, transportation, insurance, other fees, trust expenses, bank fees, etc.

This sample includes 35 films (7 documentary, 27 fiction, and 1 animation) released in 2015.  Not all of these movies received FDC incentives.

• The promotional budget for 35 Colombian films released in 2015 was 9.817 billion Colombian pesos (US$ 2.9 million), of which 22%, or 2.139 billion pesos (US$ 645,000), was used to pay the Virtual Print Fee (VPF).


• 46% of the total promotional budget was spent on advertising, amounting to 4.475 billion pesos (US$ 1.3 million).

• The five highest-grossing Colombian films in 2015 were comedies, comprising 9% of the total box office of Colombian cinema. They were exhibited at between 80 and 390 theaters.


• 54% of their budget was spent on advertising and 5% was spent on promotional materials.

• The highest-grossing film released in 2015 took in 8 billion pesos (US$ 2.4 million) at the box office and had more than 1 million admissions. 86% of this film’s promotional budget went to advertising.

• The highest grossing fiction film allocated 80% of its promotional budget to advertising, followed by 10% for VPF, and was released in approximately 54 theaters. This film took part in a number of festivals.

• The promotional budget of the lowest grossing fiction film was primarily used to pay fees (54%), and 23% went to promotional materials and advertising. It had revenues of approximately 13 million pesos (US$ 3,900) and 1,500 admissions, and was exhibited at approximately 11 theaters in the country. This film took part in a number of festivals.

• Seven Colombian documentaries were released in 2015. 35% of these films’ promotional budget went to pay fees, followed by 22% for VPF.

• The film with the lowest admissions and box office receipts was a documentary. It was released in three theaters.


• 49% of its promotional budget went to the payment of fees and 18% to advertising.

• The documentary with the highest admissions and box office receipts spent 69% of its promotional budget on the payment of fees and 25% on copies of the film on hard drives. It was shown in 17 theaters.

• 17 of the 35 analyzed films had fewer than 10,000 admissions: 10 fiction films and 7 documentaries. These films were exhibited at between 3 and 32 theaters, with an average of 13 theaters per film.


• Films 1 and 2, both fiction, had a promotional budget of nearly 500 million pesos (US$ 150,800). Film 1 had around 8,500 admissions and film 2 had around 6,700.


• Films that spent between 100 and 200 million pesos (US$ 30,000 to 60,000) were those with the lowest admissions. Admissions for these films ranged between 600 and 5,500. For these films, there was not necessarily a correlation between admissions and the budget allocated to promotion.

• There is no evidence to suggest that allocating a large budget for promotion necessarily guarantees a high number of admissions. Five of the six films in this group are comedies. Film 1, which allocated about 700 million pesos (US$ 210,000) for its promotional budget, had the highest number of admissions. However, films 3 and 6, with a similar promotional budget, did not attain the same level of admissions as film 1.


• For films with over 100,000 admissions, there is a clear correlation between the number of theaters in which a film is exhibited and the number of admissions.