Italy’s Box Office Returning After Pandemic

[FWN Adm]

Italy was one of the countries most hit in Europe by the COVID pandemic. The strict lockdowns crippled the economy in many ways, countless businesses closed their stores and naturally their movie theaters were not immune to this. While most survived but were not able to show any films.

2023 started to show a great recovery and box office has surged again. Below are some figures from 2023:

Box office takings rose 62% compared to 2022 to hit €495m, according to figures from Italian box office company Cinetel published by audiovisual body Anica. Admissions grew by 59% to reach 70.5m. However, the Italian theatrical market is still down by approximately 16% in takings and 23% in attendance compared to the pre-pandemic average for the 2017-2019 period. The top grossing film of the year was There's Still Tomorrow, the directorial debut of Italian star Paola Cortellesi, which was released in October through Vision Distribution after world premiering at the Rome Film Festival. The black and white comedy drama, set in Rome in 1946, grossed nearly €33m at the box office – ahead of second placed Barbie (€32.1m) and then Oppenheimer (€27.9m).

Anica highlighted the performance of Italian films in 2023, noting that Italian productions, including co-productions, recorded revenues of over €120m and 18m admissions for a roughly 26% share of total attendance.

Not only was there a higher share for Italian productions than the average for the pre-pandemic years of 2017-2019 (21%) but it was also close to the average for the entire decade 2010-2019 (26.9%).

The top three Italian-produced films, in addition to Paola Cortellesi's There's Still Tomorrow, included comedy adventure Me Contro Te Il Film – Missione Giungla (€4.8m) and Fabio de Luigi's comedy Tre Di Troppo (€4.7m). Anica also underlined the recovery of the summer season in Italy, traditionally considered the weakest period at the local box office.

The May to August period saw higher takings than the three-year period 2017-2019. Overall, the year recorded five months out of 12 with values higher than pre-pandemic data.

Italy mirrors most other European countries whose 2023 box office remains below the pre-pandemic era. France's box office is 13.1% below the pre-Covid 2017-2019 average, while the UK and Ireland is 22.1% down on the three-year pre-pandemic period average. For Germany the figure is 16.9% below and for Spain it is 23.9% below.