Supporting the Phantom Film Industry

Last I checked, Spain doesn't grow many cacao beans (for chocolate). This shouldn't surprise anyone--Spain isn't a good place to make quality beans. I suppose they could get around that by constructing vast greenhouses and use vast amounts of energy to simulate the needed climate. Doing so would, of course, be a needless and tremendous burden on their economy. Thankfully, no one (to my knowledge) is suggesting they do that.

For whatever reason Spain--indeed Europe in general--isn't a good place to make films either. Most people over there prefer American movies. But that doesn't stop the Spanish government from forging a new law requiring cinemas to show one European movie for every three non-European ones. It would be like requiring 25% of the chocolate in stores be made from cacao beans grown in New England.

The politics of it is, of course, to support the local film industry. But cinemas all over the country scream in protest, even engaging in a 24 hour strike on Monday (93% participated). They know their customers want foreign films, not films from a local industry so poorly executed it has to force people to sell them.