04/07/2003 - The General Meeting of Italy's theatrical exhibitors ended with a request for answers. Meanwhile the "Euros2 tickets" promotion was a huge success

"Uncertainty became anxiety and then impatience," the General Meeting of Italy's theatrical exhibitors was held in Rome yesterday in the presence of Carmelo Rocca, the secretary general of the Italian culture ministry, and Gianni Profita, the director-general for cinema.
The final document called for an early conclusion to all rental agreements (including temporary ones) in order to "prevent companies from going out of business and to allow them to maintain their vitality and work in the spectator's best interests."
Anec announced that yesterday's one-day promotional campaign where cinema tickets were discounted to just Euros2 per screening was a huge success. They reported a 93 per cent increase in cinema attendance with respect to last Thursday, with 77 per cent of that reported by cinemas that boarded the promotion.

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The general meeting concluded that "ensuring vitality and allowing exhibitors to operate also by means of an improvement to the relationship between exhibition and distribution, in a final analysis will result in a clear advantage for the all filmgoers. Should this fail to be implemented it will result in a degeneration of situations that are already problematic and would ultimately damage the Italian film theatre network."
Mr Rocca addressed the issue of new cinemas saying that rules must be implemented and monitored on a municipal and regional level, and based on the national legislation. He said it was vital that "cannabalism" be avoided at all costs in order to safeguard Italy’s real estate and technological heritage which the country cannot afford to lose. He also said that existing film theatres must be protected and new theatres opened only where there is a shortage. "

(Translated from Italian)