15/10/2002 - Italian audiences vote with their feet and flock to see Benigni's new film. An opening box office of over Euros 7mn

The 960 prints of Roberto Benigni’s new film – covering fully one-third of the Italian distribution market – produced the year’s highest opening weekend box office take. The Oscar winning director’s film cost around Euros45 million to make and has already earned Euros7.021.000, according to Cinetel who monitor 74 per cent of Italy’s movie theatres. The amount is sure to rise to Euros9.5million, with a per-screen average of Euros11.200. A significant record that can only be compared to foreign blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings, Spiderman and Harry Potter.
It would appear that the American-style marketing campaign undertaken by Medusa has paid dividends. The campaign that accompanied the launch literally saturated Italy’s film distribution sector, and invaded the publishing sector which released new versions of Carlo Collodi’s fairytale, and talking puppets, toys and gadgets of all kinds.
In the meantime Vincenzo Cerami, who wrote the screenplay with Benigni, replied to some of the negative reviews that appeared over the last few days. He spoke of ”the critics’ crisis”: “I find myself having to deal with the sort of bad language that is more common to hooligans, expressions that are full of hate and ominous poisons directed both at the film and at Benigni himself... These people can’t even acknowledge the fact that with his Life is Beautiful, Benigni managed to stir up the waters of a film industry that was in a coma.”

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