25/03/2005

This year, quality film have trouble earning over three million euros in the theatres registered by Cinetel. A report published in the Giornale dello Spettacolo emphasizes that, since Christmas, only two films have passed the €3M threshold : Million Dollar Baby which got €6M, and The Merchant of Venice , with 3,6M. Last season had generated better results, with for instance 21 grams (4,7M €), The Barbarian Invasions (3,7M), and Lost in Translation (3,1M).
Over the last weeks, on the contrary, films who received critical acclaim, such as Hotel Rwanda, The Walker of the Champ-de-Mars, La fiera della vanità, and Kinsey, did not attract the public, thus confirming the fact that art cinema is going through a difficult period.

According to Georgette Ranucci, PR for Lucky Red, the problem lies in a far too rich offer. For Luciano Sovena, manager at the Luce Institute, ‘the necessity to reorganise profits concerns all types of movies ; the point is not to disadvantage art cinema. Buying a film takes about 100 to 200,000 euros, which is an easily recuperable sum’.
Walter Vacchino, president of the l’Anec, an exhibitors society, agrees with this. As he said, ‘the whole market is suffering’, because ‘DVDs are released closer and closer to the cinema release, which has negative effects on the commercial results of all the titles’.

(Translated from Italian)