21/06/2005

Admission figures for the first five months of 2005 are generally appalling. Germany registered –14.4% tickets sold, Spain –13.9%, France -9% and the USA –7.5%. Only Great-Britain is an exception, with only –1% admissions (+17% in June, so far). On the contrary, Italy is seriously affected, with –17.8% in June (temporary result registered on the 19th) and -14% since the beginning of the year.
These bad results are the centre of debate at the Film professional days, the yearly convention of exhibitors which is taking place, this year, in Rome, a few steps away from the Vatican.

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While professionals discuss piracy and the slow summer season, trailers are announcing the new films which they are counting on to improve the situation. There is, indeed, widespread agreement that a few carefully chosen films can be enough to attract the public back. "Manuale d'amore," Walter Vacchino (ANEC) points out, revived the industry last March. "Everybody has high hopes for La tigre e la neve ('the tiger and the snow'), Roberto Benigni's new film, since," as Richard Borg (Unidim) says, "a market cannot work without a good local product." Amongst the most awaited films, there is also Natale a Miami ('Christmas in Miami'), by the team Boldi-De Sica, and Il mio migliore nemico ('my best ennemy'), by Carlo Verdone and Silvio Muccino, who have come to represent the ‘intelligent comedy’ genre.

However, doubts are as numerous as hopes are high: besides the quality issue, there are many possible causes for this severe decline, from internet piracy to the general tendency to go out less and the economic outlook. The situation is of great concern: last May, only 4,728,000 people went to the cinema, while in May 2004, there were 7 million spectators.
The Italian Minister Rocco Buttiglione, accompanied by Gaetano Blandini, head of the Cinema section, gave his complete support, underlining the main points of his programme: defending the 'cultural exception' at European level, fighting against piracy, and helping exhibitors. He also announced that he is currently working on a European regulation which should ensure an improvement in competitiveness of European films against American productions.