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BOX OFFICE Italy

Admissions, takings and Italian cinema’s share of the market increase in 2016

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- According to Cinetel's figures, last year 105 million tickets were sold in Italy, an increase of 6.06% on 2015. Takings were up by 3.86%, while Italian film’s share of the market grew to 28.71%

Admissions, takings and Italian cinema’s share of the market increase in 2016
Quo Vado? by Gennaro Nunziante

“People are going to the cinema, which is why we have to keep theatres alive all year round”. It was with a reflection on the age-old problem of seasonality, or rather the way that releases are concentrated to certain periods of the year with a chronic lack of films at other times of the year, that the newly appointed president of ANICA, Francesco Rutelli, acknowledged the positive Italian box office figures for 2016, compiled by Cinetel (accounting for 93% of the entire market, or rather 3,438 screens) and presented today in Rome to all the main associations of exhibitors, producers and distributors, along with the Directorate General for Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Nicola Borrelli.

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Film in Italy has grown in popularity: 105.3 million tickets were sold in 2016, an increase of 6.06% on 2015. Takings also increased, to €661.8 million, an increase of 3.86%. “We’re pleased but we can’t stop now”, said Andrea Occhipinti, the president of ANICA distributors. “If we look at the figures from the last five years, we see that admissions have fluctuated between 90 and 105 million. To increase the number of people regularly going to the cinema, which we all consider low in comparison to other countries like France, which has almost double as many, we need to strengthen the offering in the summer and keep diversifying our product”.

Quo vado? [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile
]
and Perfect Strangers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(which held first and second place respectively in the rankings for 2016, with €65.3 and €17.3 million in takings), along with Fire at Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile
]
, Like Crazy [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Paolo Virzì
film profile
]
, and They Call Me Jeeg [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile
]
, are the titles mentioned, in particular by the president of ANICA producers Francesca Cima, as further proof of the variety of Italian films in 2016, “a variety we need to build on looking to the future”. Indeed, Italian film’s share of the market grew: admissions rose to 28.71% in 2016 compared to 21.35% in 2015, whilst admissions to American films dropped, from 60.01% in 2015 to 55.19% in 2016; the market share held by European films instead stood at 12.75% (admissions) and 12.24 % (takings) compared to 15.50% and 15.10% in 2015. The average ticket price was €6.28 (€6.19 in the previous year). 

The number of films distributed in 2016 also grew to 554 (of which 199 were Italian) from 480 (of which 186 were Italian) in 2015. But all in all everyone, in particular the presidents of ANEC, Luigi Cuciniello, and ANEM, Carlo Bernaschi, agree on one thing: that the throng of releases over the Christmas period that we’ve just seen, with 29 films released in total between 16 December 2016 and 6 January 2017, compared to 17 in the previous year, should not be repeated. It represented an obstruction without precedent which, in the absence of the Zalone effect, led to a clear fall in admissions (-35,71%) and takings (-38,06%) compared to twelve months ago. A Christmas debacle which partly neutralised the successes of the year.

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(Translated from Italian)

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