Brazil’s first Festival do Cinema Brasileiro, a week in which the country’s cinemas sold tickets to Brazilian films at a flat R$12 ($2.20), drew more than 461,000 admissions and took R$6.1m ($1.1m) between 29 October and 4 November, the exhibitor bodies that ran it said on Monday.
The local share of the market almost doubled. Brazilian films accounted for 29.7% of all cinema admissions that week, according to figures from the national film agency ANCINE quoted in the organisers’ release, against 15.3% in the cinema week before and 8.6% for 2026 to date, in a year when, according to ANCINE figures reported in October, total admissions had already passed the whole of 2025. FilmBunch reported the festival’s launch on 26 October.
Key facts
- Organisers: FENEEC, the national federation of cinema exhibitors, with institutional support from ABRAPLEX, the association of multiplex operators
- Offer: R$12 for Brazilian features in standard screens, plus booking fees online; foreign films at normal prices; chains joined voluntarily
- Result: more than 461,000 admissions and R$6.1m in seven days, as reported by the organisers
- Average ticket: about R$13.20 ($2.40) per admission, by FilmBunch’s calculation from those totals, above the advertised price
How the week worked
FENEEC and ABRAPLEX also run the Semana do Cinema, a cut-price week for all films whose ninth edition drew about 5.6 million people in September. The festival applied the idea to Brazilian titles only. Participating chains included Cinemark, Cinépolis, UCI, Kinoplex, Cinesystem and Cineart, and several paired the ticket offer with cheaper popcorn and drink combos.
The terms were set chain by chain. Cinépolis, for example, kept its VIP, IMAX and 4DX rooms out of the offer, and Ingresso.com sold the tickets at R$12 plus fees. Both would push the average takings above the advertised price.
ABRAPLEX’s executive director, Tiago Mafra, framed the result in tickets rather than share. “We tripled the audience for Brazilian films compared with the previous cinema week,” he said in the release, which was issued in Portuguese. He added: “The success of Brazilian productions is fundamental to the development and sustainability of the exhibition business, and we know that, historically, in every year our productions do well, the market as a whole grows.” FENEEC’s president, Lucio Otoni, said the result had beaten the organisers’ expectations.
The holiday factor
The festival straddled the long weekend of Finados, the All Souls’ Day holiday on Monday 2 November, and the whole market recovered. Cinemas sold 1.56 million tickets and took R$36.22m ($6.6m) over the long weekend, according to Rentrak figures reported by the trade site Portal Exibidor, after the previous weekend had fallen below one million admissions, the weakest of the year. That market-wide lift helps explain why the tripling Mafra cites in admissions is larger than the near-doubling in share.
Imports still topped the weekend. A live relay of BTS’s São Paulo concert was the biggest draw, with 243,860 admissions, and two non-Brazilian titles took second and third place. Paris Filmes’ Minha Melhor Amiga came fourth with 117,360 in its ninth weekend, taking its total to 6.08 million and making it the fifth-biggest release of the year in Brazil. The grief drama As Dez Vantagens de Morrer Depois de Você, also from Paris Filmes and starring Any Gabrielly and Giulia Be, opened in fifth place with 108,510.
Carlos Saldanha’s 100 Dias, which opened on the festival’s first day through Disney’s Buena Vista International, drew 81,100. Produced by Ventre Studio, it stars Filipe Bragança as Amyr Klink, the sailor who rowed alone across the South Atlantic from Namibia to Bahia in 1984. The organisers also named Se Eu Fosse Você 3 and Allan Deberton’s Feito Pipa, Brazil’s entry for the international feature Oscar, among the week’s strongest titles. Feito Pipa played in previews before Paris Filmes released it on 5 November, the day after the festival closed.
The release gives no market-wide admissions total for the week and no breakdown by chain, format or film. The organisers have not said whether the festival will return.
Our reading
A fixed low price for local films, launched on a holiday weekend alongside two fresh Brazilian releases and a ninth-weekend hit, produced a striking share figure. It does not isolate the effect of the price. On Mafra’s count Brazilian admissions tripled, but the whole market grew that week too.
The test is the week after. ANCINE’s figures for 5–11 November, with the R$12 offer gone and Feito Pipa playing at full price, will show how much of the 29.7% share Brazilian films can hold without a discount. Our analysis of who is winning box office outside North America and China puts Brazil’s local-versus-imported split in a wider frame.
Dollar conversions use European Central Bank reference rates for 9 November 2026 (R$5.52 to $1).
Sources
- FENEEC/ABRAPLEX results release, as published by Alô Alô Bahia, 9 November 2026 (Portuguese)
- FENEEC/ABRAPLEX results release, as published by AcontecendoAqui, 9 November 2026 (Portuguese)
- Portal Exibidor, long-weekend box office (Rentrak data), 3 November 2026 (Portuguese)
- Exame, participating chains and terms, 29 October 2026 (Portuguese)
- Ingresso.com, campaign terms (R$12 plus fees), 26 October 2026 (Portuguese)
- Academia Brasileira de Cinema, Feito Pipa selected for the 2027 Oscars, 16 September 2026 (Portuguese)
- Paris Filmes, Feito Pipa film page (release 5 November 2026) (Portuguese)
- Ventre Studio, 100 Dias project page (Portuguese)
- European Central Bank, euro reference rates, 9 November 2026