10/07/2014 - The report published by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo is presented to MiBACT. A year of box office successes and international awards. A boom in debuts, a fall in investment

"Cinema is alive and kicking". This is confirmed by Redento Mori, journalist and scientific editor of the 2013 Report – The Italian Cinema Market and Industry, published by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo (FEdS) in collaboration – for the first time this year – with MiBACT (the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities). "At the moment we are seeing a drop in sales and viewers in all cultural sectors. Cinema however, is an exception”, added Mori. "On the other hand, given a significant drop in resources, new sources of investment must be found for diversified and alternative products: Italian cinema is suffering from a kind of stiffness when it comes to its strategies and products.

Nicola Borrelli, Director General of Cinema at MiBACT, confirmed: "The box office successes and international awards highlight the vitality of Italian cinema: this is a system that works and that is making progress". And she concluded: "Let’s stop talking about crises in Italian cinema: it’s a common myth, because despite the fall in investment the industry is doing well, and the political world has lately realised just how important this sector is".

The information in the Report shows an exceptional year. The share of proceeds recorded by Italian films returns to 30% of the total, an increase compared to the considerable dip in 2012 that had stopped at 25%. 2013 was a historic year for Italian cinema in view of the Oscar awarded to Paolo Sorrentino’s film The Great Beauty [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile] and due to the all-time record for an Italian movie set by Sole a catinelle [+see also:
trailer
film profile]: 8 million viewers in the first three months and total proceeds of 51.83 million euro. 

2013 was also a year for debuts; there were 453 first films released in the Cinetel circuit, compared to 364 in 2012 with an increase of 24.79%.

The 2013 report tells us that distribution is also climbing. The number of titles distributed is up since 2010. Between 2012 and 2013 the number of films jumped from 833 to 979 (+13.7%, Cinetel circuit). Unfortunately, the downward trend for single-screen cinemas continues. In 2006 there were 713; in 2013 the number  dropped to 530. From 2006 to 2013, single-screen cinemas lost 39.4% of proceeds.

A sharp decline in investments was recorded. In just one year they dropped from 493.1 to 357.6 million euro. The average cost of a film in Italy is estimated at around 2.1 million euro. Average expenditure dropped to 1.69 million for 100% Italian movies. 

Roberto Cicutto, CEO of Istituto Luce – Cinecittà, adds two elements to this data:  positive results for the distribution of Italian cinema abroad and a cry of distress for the distribution of first and second feature films.

(Translated from Italian)