Cinematographic Market

Brazilian Cinema’s Best Moment

By Fábio de Sá Cesnik

Brazil is proving to be an interesting market for audiovisual co-productions with other countries due to its variety of co-production deals and for making matters easy for those proposals; the country is also a great space for “film commission” and a seller of good productions to fill the program schedules in many countries around the world. Who has never heard about Brazilian soap operas?

Two fundamental reasons led to this growth: the maturing of the Brazilian market and the Government’s push, creating a series of stimuli for cultural production in general through federal, state and municipal means: several Incentive Laws, public funds used for financing projects, reimbursable loans and private funds with and without tax incentive. Support came from everywhere and more Brazilian movies were on movie theaters and on televisions around the world.

The best box-office in Europe in 2002 was the Brazilian movie “Central do Brasil” (Central Station), co-produced by France, which made 1,6 million euros in the European Union. Brazil’s movie market thrived significantly in the last years, second only to Mexico’s; between the years 1997 and 2002, the number of spectators rose from 62 to 90,6 million people.

Highly important by-products of the audiovisual industry are the sales and consumption of related products. But the audiovisual is a profitable industry in Brazil in its own right. The chart below shows that this sector had direct earnings of over five million dollars (figures from 1997). Today, it is estimated that the volume of resources may have doubled and may be already superior to ten billion dollars.

Brazil: ESTIMATION FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE AUDIOVISUAL INDUSTRY REVENUE BY SECTOR – 1997

Segments	Revenue
	Amounts (US$ million)	Distribution %
Publicity on TV (cable and open)	3.025	55
Cable TV subscriptions	1.430	26
Video renting expenses	660	12
Box-office	357	6,5
Others	28	0,5
Total	5.500	100,0

Source: Ministério da Cultura (1999) - Calculation GEOPI

In Brazil, movie theaters exhibit mostly North American productions, but when it comes to television, there is a better balance between national and foreign production. Soap operas play a major role and made Brazil an eminent exporter of TV programs to other countries.

As an example, a North American movie production is watched by an audience of around 30 million people worldwide. Some TV channels in Brazil can reach up to 80% (eighty per cent) of Brazilians, that is, more than 100 million people. By the way, Brazil boasts the sixth higher number of installed TV sets in the world. The chart below indicates the rate of television penetration on Brazilian homes.

Brazil – Television Penetration Rate in Brazilian Homes (1969-1996)

Year	Population Over 15 years old	Number of Homes	(%) Homes with TV
1960	40.278.602	13.497.823	4,6
1970	54.130.024	17.628.699	24,1
1980	73.558.675	25.210.639	56,1
1991	95.810.618	34.743.433	79,6
1996	106.169.456	39.599.066	84.3

Source: Censo Demográfico, 1960 (p. 125), 1970 (p. 243), 1980 (p. 61), 1991 (p. 241).Brasil em Números, Vol. 6, 1998. Extracted from Ministério da Cultura (1999) Brasil em Números, Vol. 6, 1998. Extracted from Ministério da Cultura do Brasil (1999)

When it comes to the movie industry, the numbers have grown rapidly. In 2002, almost 10% of the market was dedicated to Brazilian productions. In 2003, this number expanded to 20%, keeping significant records in 2004.

In order to achieve such great result, the volume of resources invested by the Federal Government, through its budget and tax incentives, was over US$ 30 million per year. Below arethe concrete numbers of those investments (updated dollar rate US$1=R$2.60):

           BRAZIL: Volume of resources invested in audiovisual projects (in reais)

Year	Volume of tax exemption (Audiovisual and Rouanet Laws)	Volume of resources from other mechanisms	Total in one year
2000	47.104.000	5.506.000	52.610.000
2001	90.763.000	540.000	91.303.000
2002	79.950.000	3.192.000	83.142.000
2003	112.024.000	11.244.000	123.268.000
2004	101.000.000	15.000.000	116.000.000

Source: Ancine – Agência Nacional de Cinema do Brasil (www.ancine.gov.br)

The next steps for market development are certainly related to participating in more foreign co-productions and more “film comission” owing to the low costs for filming in Brazil, besides the bigger interest in exporting and purchasing the Brazilian product. We are absolutely certain that Brazil is a promising market for the audiovisual and that it is worth thinking of concrete actions in Brazil.

Fábio de Sá Cesnik is a lawyer, partner of Cesnik, Quintino and Salinas (, specializing in audiovisual, culture and third sector. He is the author of the books “Projetos Culturais”, published by Editora Escrituras and “Guia de Incentivo à Cultura” and “Globalização da Cultura”, both published by Editora Manole . (cesnik@cqs.adv.br).

Focus 2003.Tendências do Mercado Mundial do Filme. Audiovisual European Observatory , France.

Research by  OMPI (www.wipo.int) and UNICAMP (www.unicamp.br).

Data from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil, 1999.

Research by OMPI (www.wipo.int) and  UNICAMP (.