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Sound Stages and Production Companies: Mexico
Key Takeaways
- While reliable data on the number of soundstages in Mexico is unavailable, the research team estimates that there are at least 156 soundstages in Mexico.
- The research team also estimates that there are at least 255 production companies in Mexico.
- The number of films produced in Mexico was 186 and 216 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. This suggests that the estimates above are likely within the actual value range.
- According to Statista, the total number of TV programming production companies in Mexico is 9.
Introduction
Although data on the number of soundstages and production companies in Mexico are not publicly available, the research team estimates that there are at least 156 soundstages and 255 production companies in Mexico.
Number of Soundstages in Mexico
- Reliable data on the number of sound stages in Mexico is unavailable.
- Soundstages are generally part of production studios. Hence, it can be assumed that the number of soundstages will at least be equal to the number of production studios in the country.
- While data on the number of production studios in Mexico is unavailable, Televisa, the largest TV station in Mexico with a 43% market share, states in its annual report that it has 45 production studios.
- TV Azteca, the second leading TV company in Mexico with a market share of 31%, has 54 production studios.
- Imagen TV is the third largest TV station in Mexico, with a market share of about 21%, but data on the number of production studios the company has is not publicly available.
- Estudios GGM, one of the largest independent production studios in Mexico, currently has eight soundstages but will likely rise to nine with new soundstages under construction.
- The Mexican Film Commission has a database of Recording Studios And Audio Design service providers on its website, and there are 49 such establishments on its database.
- None of the establishments on the Mexican Film Commission database are any of the ones already mentioned.
- By adding up all the various soundstages located above, we conclude that the number of soundstages in Mexico is at least 156 (45 + 54 + 8 + 49).
Number of Production Companies in Mexico
- Reliable data on the total number of production companies in Mexico is unavailable.
- Statista states that the total number of TV programming production companies in Mexico is 9.
- The Mexican Film Commission has a database of film production companies in the country. The database has a list of 246 film production companies in the country.
- By adding both data together, we have that the total number of production companies in Mexico is at least 255 (246 + 9).
- The number of films produced in Mexico was 186 and 216 in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
- In 2020, Mexico released 47 films produced in the country compared to 101 in 2019. The decline in 2020 was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The number of films produced and/or released annually in Mexico suggests that the estimates provided above on the number of film production companies are probably within the range of the actual numbers.
Research Strategy
To provide data on the number of sound stages and productions companies available in Mexico, our research team began by extensively searching for the data on industry, statistics databases, and media sources. After an exhaustive search, the only relevant data we found was data on the number of TV programming establishments in Canada from Statista.
Next, we searched government databases for the data. We searched the Mexican Directorio Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas (The National Statistical Directory of Economic Units (DENUE)), which contains data of various establishments in the Mexican economy, but neither data on the number of companies/establishments in the film production industry, studio, or soundstage was on the database.
We also tried to determine the number of soundstages by looking for the major players in the industry and how many studios they have. The goal was to use the number of soundstages the key players have and their market share to estimate the number of overall soundstages in the country. However, we were only able to find the market share of the top three players in the TV programming industry and the number of studios the top two companies have, which we have provided above. Since production studios generally have soundstages, we also assumed each studio has one soundstage.
However, during the course of our research, we found the Mexican Film Commission website, a government commission that also has a list of sound studios in the country as well as a list of film production companies. The database is a way for the government to help promote these establishments in various states in Mexico. Although the Mexican Film Commission database doesn't have an exhaustive list of every soundstage and film production company in Mexico, the list is the most robust list available. We checked to see if the major companies with sound stages we identified earlier were on the list on the Mexican Film Commission database, and we didn't find any of them. Hence, we decided to add up the total numbers and have reported the data above as the minimum number.
We have also provided additional data on the number of films produced and released in Mexico to help shed light on the demand for soundstages in Canada. The number of films produced annually in Canada also suggests that the estimates provided are likely within range.