Gaumont Cinema.
By Benjamín Harguindey
Argentina is considered a “tastemaker” market in South America, coveted for positioning films for favorable runs around the continent. But currency restraints have recently prevented Hollywood studios like Disney and Paramount from cashing in on box office blockbusters distributed around the country, a result of Argentina’s devalued currency.
Consequently, many of these US studios have dealt with the hard currency issues by “redeploying pesos to support their local television and film productions and distribution activities”, as Variety reported, effectively helping the local industry by encouraging reinvestment of profits earned in Argentina.
Incidentally, the local industry is currently making history with the release of Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes), which sold half a million tickets in a mere 5 days. The record is held by Juan José Campanella’s animated film Underdogs (Metegol), which sold over 700,000 tickets on its opening week last year. Record-breaking or not, Wild Tales has already gone for the box office top spot, pulling ahead of blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, both of which held an attendance of little under 400,000 and 300,000 viewers on their respective release weeks.
Filming in Argentina: The blog of San Telmo Productions 