Successful San Diego Comic-Con Málaga closes with pledge to improve access and better manage queues next year

The last day of San Diego Comic-Con Málaga (SDCCM) was unmatched. The attendance of Arnold Schwarzenegger was the finishing touch of an event in the capital of the Costa del Sol that broke even its best forecasts. About 120,000 people from all over Europe and Latin America entered the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos (Fycma) over the four days. SDCCM left an estimated economic impact of 50 million euros to the area.

An extraordinary atmosphere was forged by fans eager to enjoy the legendary event. The success of SDCCM, however, was also marked by moments of collapse, with endless queues on the busiest days - Saturday and Sunday. Many attendees expressed their dissatisfaction with the organisation of the space, which has prompted the responsible institutions and companies to expand the venue for the next event due in September 2026.

Numerous families with children attended the closing day - Sunday, 28 September. The youngest ones could get in for free. Many people had prepared their costumes with so much patience and detail that they could compete with the professional cosplayers. Photos and compliments were being exchanged throughout the day. Fortunately, the queues, although still overwhelming, were not as stressful and busy as on Saturday, especially after Grupo Kuo - the company responsible for the event's security - took matters seriously and adopted a different strategy to minimise queues. The 90 security employees that worked on each day of the event speeded up queues with fences that marked the way for the attendees of the different spaces of the event.

However, this did not prevent people with reservations from missing their events. Justo who had come from Cadiz, for example, did not get to see Arnold Schwarzenegger, despite having reserved a spot for the talk that started in Hall M at 11am. He had arrived outside the Comic-Con at 9am and it was not until 10.55am that he was able to enter. Like him, about a hundred people complained of the same circumstances. "It can't be that people without a reservation entered and we couldn't," they said.

In response to questions from SUR, SDCCM organisers stated that they had warned everybody with a reservation for one of the specific spaces to arrive 20 minutes in advance, as they were to start letting people without reservations enter in the minutes before the start of the meeting. "We have 2,700 seats for those who have booked and 300 for those who haven't," they said, attributing the issue to the late arrival of those who had managed to book. However, as was Justo's situation, many had arrived late because of the wait at the entrance of the Comic-Con.

Among the attendees of the closing day was president of the Junta de Andalucía regional government Juanma Moreno, who attended the meeting with the 'Terminator' and then walked through the exhibition hall. During his visit, he highlighted the event's "economic impact of 50 million", which represents a significant return for public investment. The Junta had invested 2.4 million euros in the first year of the event, while Malaga city council had contributed 800,000 euros.

Moreno assured that access and queue management would improve in the following years. He said that the organisation is already working on this, planning "more space and surface area" for following years. The aim is to not only sell more tickets but to also allow attendees to move around the venue with more ease.

The president of the Junta attributed the long queues to the fact that "the forecasts were exceeded" this year. Initially, SDCCM was to reach a maximum of 60,000 attendees, but this figure more than doubled, exceeding 120,000 people. The original headquarters of Comic-Con (San Diego) confirmed the success of the Malaga event.

Sunday was also dedicated to a tribute to Spanish comic book artist Francisco Ibáñez, with an immersive exhibition of his most famous characters - Mortadelo and Filemón. The event closed with a talk from director J.A. Bayona (Society of the Snow), who came straight from the San Sebastian International Film Festival, where he had played the role of one of the judges. Bayona received the Comic-Con award, with which he expressed his pride in the achievements of Spanish cinema and his gratitude to the audience - the final recipient and judge of artistic work.