In March of 2016 at the International Guadalajara Film Festival (IGFF), Mexico's National Film Institute, IMCINE (Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía) presented its Anuario Estadístico del Cine Mexicano/Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Cinema outlining the key achievements of Mexican Cinema in 2015 as well as its aims for the future (IMCINE 2016). Figures from the 2015 report suggest that in production terms Mexican cinema is booming. Feature film production for 2015 was up on the previous year at 140 films, a number greater than the previous record-breaking 135 films in 1958. Four Mexican films attracted over a million spectators at the box office, including another film in the hugely successful animated comedy series Un gallo con muchos huevos (Gabriel y Rodolfo Riva Palacio Alatriste), which achieved audiences of over 4 million. Three new public digital platforms for Mexican cinema – FilminLatino, Plataforma Digital Cinema Mexico and Pantalla CACI – were launched. Ten national films, including recent releases such as the box office success No se aceptan devoluciones (Instructions Not Included Eugenio Derbez, 2013) exceeded 25 million spectators on television including public and pay-per-view channels. Government support for the industry was also at a high, with 70 per cent of the films produced in 2015 receiving government monies (IMCINE 2016: 43).

The presentation of the 2016 yearbook, in March 2017, brought a similar round of good news for the Mexican industry. Feature film production was up to 162 films (IMCINE 2017: 13), and the Mexican comedies .Qué culpa tiene el nino? (Don't Blame the Kid Gustavo Loza) and No manches Frida (WTH Frida Nacho G. Velilla) were the highest grossing national films attracting 5.9 and 5.1 million spectators respectively (IMCINE 2017: 92) (Table 3).

The reality for Mexican cinema is however less rosy than many of these figures suggest. Although annual production numbers are higher than six decades ago, many commentators continue to point out that the Mexican film industry, in terms of a structure that ensures the production, distribution and consumption of its own product, no longer exists (Vargas 2005: 16; MacLaird 2013a: 1–2). The Mexican market is dominated by US-owned multiplexes and US films filled all ten of the top box office slots in 2016 (Table 4).