SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The ‘Senior Cinema’ program with which people over 65 years of age can go to the cinema for two euros, one day a week, starts this Tuesday in any of the 11 cinemas in the Canary Islands that have accepted the measure promoted by the Government to encourage a return to the theaters.
By province, in Las Palmas six cinemas have been incorporated and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a total of five.
From the ministry they detail that it is a proposal that advocates “recovering the illusion of enjoying cinema as an emotional and face-to-face experience, which transcends the mere fact of watching a movie and which, instead, turns the act of going to the cinema in a social and vibrant practice”.
According to the Royal Decree approved by the Council of Ministers on June 13, at the proposal of the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta, the measure will allow one day a week, preferably Tuesday or another day in the case of theaters that only open during the weekend or that they close precisely on Tuesdays, people aged 65 or over can access the cinema for two euros.
Tickets can only be issued at the ticket offices of the rooms, after identifying the person and proving their age.
The program has a budget of 10 million euros in charge of the General State Budget 2023.
CINEMA ON THE BIG SCREEN
People 65 years of age or older are the age group that takes the longest to resume their pre-pandemic movie-going habits.
Thus, in cinema attendance there are still notable differences between age groups, since if 49.3% of young people aged 20 to 24 went to the cinema at least once a year between 2021 and 2022, that percentage drops to 6% in the older population.
Of all the cultural sectors, cinema is one of the most affected, still today, by the pandemic.
The sanitary measures taken as a result of COVID-19 caused a significant drop in the average attendance at movie theaters among the Spanish public, an attendance that has not fully recovered.
In addition, despite the upturns experienced in 2022, the sector still finds itself with approximately 40% fewer viewers compared to the average for the years 2017 to 2019.
This measure is aligned with the objectives of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
Its component 24 seeks to facilitate access to culture and promote the transition to the new digital environment that allows the incorporation of new possibilities and realities and also in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the safeguarding and promotion of culture is recognized as two ends in itself.
The new direct grant program is in addition to the direct aid to theaters that the Ministry of Culture and Sports launched to counteract the effects of COVID-19.
In 2022, it allocated more than 10 million euros to 232 companies and entities, and a total of 476 exhibition halls spread throughout the territory.
