La Bola Negra enjoys historic success at the Spanish box office

The drama by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, starring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, became the third biggest success of a Spanish film in its country.

Spanish cinema has a new champion.

Released last September 25 in Iberian cinemas, The Black Bola has reached an impressive milestone in just over five weeks of operation. As of November 1, the film by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi had grossed around 36.7 million euros in revenue and attracted some 5.4 million spectators to Spanish cinemas, according to Rentrak figures reported by Variety.

It thus becomes the third biggest success of all time for a Spanish film at the national box office. Only two feature films did better: the comedy Ocho apellidos vascos (Spanish Affair), by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, with $61.8 million in revenue in 2014, and the disaster drama The Impossibleby JA Bayona, which grossed $47.3 million (in 2012).

Note that the two biggest successes of all time at the Spanish box office remain American productions: Titanicwith nearly 11.8 million entries, and Avatarwhich totaled almost 10 million.

Inspired by the world of the Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, The Black Bola notably brings together Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close.

The film has been riding high on rave reviews since its appearance at Cannes and on very positive buzz in view of the Oscar for Best International Film, for which it will be the big favorite next March.

The feature film thus establishes itself as the biggest Spanish success of the year 2026.

This performance comes in a particularly favorable context for the country’s cinemas. Over the first 41 weeks of the year, the Spanish box office reached 489.4 million euros, an increase of 40% compared to the same period in 2025. The market is also 8% higher than the average recorded over the pre-pandemic period 2017-2019.

Spain is doing even better than the global trend: at the end of September, its revenues had increased by 35% year-on-year, compared to 11% internationally.

The French public will be able to discover The Black Bola in turn from December 16, 2026, with distribution ensured by Le Pacte.