06/05/2015 - More films are being produced but at a lower cost, foreign investment is declining, and the film market has seen a 7% fall in box-office takings and admissions compared to 2013

Investments in production are on the decline, falling from €334 million to €323 million according to Anica’s statistics for 2014, which were presented yesterday in Rome (download PDF). In 2014, 201 films were produced compared to 167 in 2013. So more films were made, but at a lower average cost. The number of 100% Italian productions increased from 137 to 180, but the number of majority co-productions fell from 17 to 14, along with the number of minority co-productions. Foreign investment also decreased, going from €77 million to €53 million. 

In 2014, Italian film’s share of the market dropped to 27%, and continued to show worrying signs of decline in the first quarter of 2015 too, falling to 25% (-8% on the same period in 2014). "The audiovisual sector is one which must adapt its business models” was the comment given by Nicola Borrelli, the Director General for Cinema of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, who presented the figures. The Italian Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities Dario Franceschini, announced new technical decrees focused on cinema, pointing out that changes made to the tax credits available to international productions are already yielding results. 

For Riccardo Tozzi, the President of Anica, cinema is seeing strong competition from new TV series, which are aimed at people who never go to the cinema, “and were born from and are challenging cinema”. The fragmentation of investments doesn’t help matters: “It is unrealistic to think that we can produce the same films with less money, there is inevitably going to be a drop in quality. Box office takings generally increase in proportion to investments."

For Francesca Cima, President of the Producers Section of Anica, hope lies in relations with broadcasters, above all public service TV broadcasters. "TV broadcasters are our production partners, they invest consistently, but there’s a lack of films on TV: Italian film is disappearing from the lives of Italian citizens”. Andrea Occhipinti, President of the Distributors Section of Anica, for his part, pointed out that an internationalisation plan was being drawn up to encourage co-productions, which are in a state of ongoing decline and are becoming increasingly difficult to make.

(Translated from Italian)