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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.
“We normally pick up only Mexican rights to films about 90% of the time but we see this as a high concept genre film that has the potential to travel exceptionally well,” said Miguel Rivera, Cinépolis VP of global programming and content, who sat down with Variety at the Morelia Film Festival alongside his theatrical distribution senior manager Karla Marti and creative executive Francisca Barraza. According to Barraza, Cinépolis is casting its net wide to work with both established and budding talent. “We’re looking for fresh, original films across various genres,” Rivera added.
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.
“While people have returned to cinemas for Hollywood blockbusters, it’s been harder to bring them back for local productions. So, we’re working hard to rebuild that audience and keep Mexican cinema growing,” said Cinépolis CEO, Alejandro Ramirez.
“The number of Mexican film titles has rebounded, but box office revenues haven’t followed. 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.
“We’re opening new screens every year now, but we are being more selective, cherry picking so to speak. 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.
“We’re on track to sell more tickets than any other cinema circuit in the world. 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.
In terms of admissions per screen worldwide, Cinépolis leads with 37,417 compared to AMC’s 22,761 and Wanda’s 25,117.
With new cinemas in the pipeline through 2029, the company remains optimistic about the industry’s future. “If cinema survived a two-year global pandemic, I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” Ramirez said. “It was the ultimate stress test, and we’ve come through it. Let’s just hope there are no more pandemics.”
Last September, Ramirez participated in the inaugural Lumière Summit, presided over by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung.
“It was refreshing to see France and South Korea give cinema and the communal big-screen experience such prominence at the highest level of government,” he said. Inspired by France’s My Class at the Cinema program, which takes 2.5 million children and teenagers to cinemas annually, he highlighted the importance of cultivating new audiences.
Following a meeting with President Macron, Cinépolis signed an agreement with Unifrance to expand the French Film Tour—which began in Mexico 30 years ago and has reached 49.5 million moviegoers across 90 cities—to Spain, India, Indonesia and Chile in 2027. “We also want to replicate France’s success in visual literacy and audience development, while bringing more Mexican cinema to international markets, including Europe.”
The Morelia Film Festival opened on Oct. 16 and wraps Oct. 25.
