The Black Ball Dominates Spanish Box Office, Posts Third-Best Weekend of the Year

After a long promotional campaign across festivals around the world, ‘La bola negra’ has finally arrived in Spanish cinemas, and it did so by storm with a box office of €4,814,581 in its opening weekend. This figure, together with the strong performance of other films, pushes the Spanish box office to €10.72 million for the weekend, crowning it as the third-best weekend of the year.

Those modest €490,000 that ‘La llamada’ collected at its cinema debut exactly nine years ago seem a distant memory now. During all this time, Los Javis had not returned to the big screen, but they had been enriching their career with major television premieres. ‘La bola negra’ is not only their return to cinema with their second feature film, it is also their first foray into pure drama, after a long portfolio of successful lighthearted comedies.

The release of ‘La bola negra’, which has drawn 634,500 moviegoers to cinemas, sneaks into the ninth place among the best Spanish film debuts in history, and it is the second-best debut of the post-pandemic era after ‘Torrente Presidente’ earlier this year.

Solid figures for a film with a budget around €14 million, whose profitability would already be secured with its international deals following its festival circuit.

Historic milestone also for the Avengers: Endgame re-release

Without the release of ‘La bola negra’, the week’s headline would have gone to the re-release of Avengers: Endgame, which also achieves excellent numbers in our country, as has happened at the US box office. Here, the Marvel film has returned to cinemas occupying the second spot in the rankings with a not-insignificant gross of €1,479,053. The film earns €89 million worldwide with this return to cinemas, in addition to the €2.8 billion of its original 2019 box office.

Surprise also in the third place for Brad Pitt’s In the Heart of the Beast. The movie, which had disappointed in its US opening, achieves in Spain a much better debut by staying very close to Avengers with €1,342,119 in box office.

Also for the first time in a long while, four films manage to surpass the €1 million barrier at the Spanish box office. The fourth is Resident Evil, which in its second week posts another strong gross of €1,136,587. The movie that restarts the saga based on the popular video game accumulates a total of €4.25 million in Spain.

The top five of the box office is completed by another premiere of the week. This time, Universal’s The Forgotten Island barely makes its debut, barely breaking the half-million threshold: €424,226 for the animated film that could not compete with the other premieres of the week, and which repeats in Spain the disappointing numbers seen in the United States.

The summer classics endure

In the second half of the top ten, we find many of the titles that defined the summer, which slip in the ranking but still post solid numbers. Thus, Coyote vs. Acme secures a solid sixth place in its second week, with a 43% drop from its opening, adding €366,650 for a total of €1.269.945 over two weeks.

Seventh place goes to Tadeo Jones and the Marvelous Lamp, which adds another €277,107 to a box office that now surpasses €7 million, specifically €7,161,707. No doubt the animated film has been the Spanish summer movie, despite its late release.

Next, the pack formed by The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day remains inseparable, though signs of fatigue are evident. Nolan’s film logs another €204,687 and Marvel’s €140,072. In totals, the latter comes out on top with €40.1 million versus €38.7 million for the other.

Finally, the ranking closes with ‘El ser querido’. If Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film had held up well in recent weeks, the arrival of ‘La bola negra’ seems to have affected it, prompting a significant drop of 65% in its fifth week. Specifically, €110,245 at the box office. The good news is that the film crosses the €4 million mark with €4,024,231 in cumulative gross.

That’s all for the weekend’s top 10. We’ll stay tuned to the evolution of ‘La bola negra’‘s box office to see if it continues making history in our cinemas.