The second edition of Senior Cinema Program it’s here. He Official State Gazette (BOE) published this Wednesday the Royal Decree approving the measure that allows people over 65 years of age to go to movie theaters on Tuesdays for two euros. Among the new features of this edition, people over 65 years of age also You can purchase tickets with the discount online, and not only at the box officeand an advertising campaign has been agreed in which exhibitors and distributors will participate, together with the Ministry of Culture.

On this occasion 12 million euros will be allocated, 20 percent more budget than in the first edition. The decree, signed by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and King Felipe VI, details that the entry into force of the norm will occur “the day after its publication” in the BOE, although the program will not be available until late April or early May.

This was explained yesterday by the head of Culture at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, where he explained that the measure is aimed at 9.5 million people over 65 years of age, who will be allowed to go to movie theaters for two euros. Urtasun explained that in this new edition Cultura has “improved” the distribution system in movie theaters with the creation of a reserve fund of 1.75 million euros, because in the first edition some theaters were left without credit and ” They couldn’t carry the program to the end.

“We have improved the distribution system, allocating more resources to those theaters that host a greater number of spectators aged 65 or over. We have created a reserve fund of 1,750,000 euros so that the credit does not run out,” he added. In his first call, he A total of 420 cinemas from all over Spain joinedbut only 28 cinemas spent everything they received in this aid, according to data provided by the Government on December 26 in a parliamentary response to the Popular Group, to which Europa Press had access.

Urtasun assured that cinema is a “key” sector for culture and recalled that it has been more difficult for movie theaters to recover after the pandemic, partly due to the drop in audiences over 65 years of age, as he has pointed out. “Our fundamental objective is to guarantee cultural rights to the entire population and throughout the territory,” he stressed. Regarding the first edition, the minister maintained that it was a “real success“because the assistance increased on Tuesdays by 49 percent, in relation to the previous year, going from 2.7 million viewers to four million. In addition, he added that attendance on Tuesdays grew twice as much as the rest of the days of the week.