Bullfights bring in five times more VAT than Spanish films.
The figures speak for themselves: Spanish cinema received €65 million in direct state aid, a significant increase compared to the €48 million it received in 2019, its last year of operation before COVID. However, the 35% increase in budget allocation did not translate into an improvement in box office income.
The situation for Spanish cinema is different from that of bullfighting. Despite the fact that this spectacle (bullfighting) has been declared an intangible cultural heritage, the truth is that public administrations spend only a residual percentage of their cultural budgets on it, representing barely 2.4% of these payments, which total €1 290 million.
According to the Libremercado portal, data published by the Ministry of Culture at the end of 2022 show that cinema box office receipts will be €83 million, a drop of €11 million on the €94 million earned in 2019. Thus, while the government increased the subsidy for this sector by 35%, ticket sales fell by 12%.
However, bullfighting generated almost €345 million in ticket sales in 2019, a figure that not only decreased in 2022, but increased to around €400 million. Thus, while Spanish cinema revenues fell by 12%, bullfighting revenues increased by 14%.
The Eldebate portal reiterates this data, where there is a significant difference between the fiscal balance of the two cultural sectors. Thus, while bullfighting leaves around €40 million in the public coffers from ticket sales, the Spanish cinema's revenue from the same concept is around €8 million. In other words, the VAT on bullfighting is five times higher than on cinema.
https://www.mundotoro.com/noticia/la-tauromaquia-aporta-cinco-veces-mas-iva-que-el-cine-espanol/1674817
