We Believed a big hit on a small scale
Released theatrically last Friday to a controversy between producer Carlo Degli Esposti and 01 Distribution for the low number of prints (only 30) , Mario Martone’s We Believed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mario Martone
interview: Mario Martone
film profile] snagged a per-screen average of €4,288 and an overall gross of €124,356 in the 29 cinemas monitored by Cinetel. By far the best screen average of the weekend, with even Maschi contro femmine [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile] earning only €2,974 per screen (of an overall box office of over €11m so fart).
The press office of the film produced by Palomar in collaboration with RAI Cinema and RAI Fiction announced there were sold-out screenings in Milan, Bologna, Turin, Rome, Florence, Naples, Bari, Genoa and Padua, with long lines outside cinemas, and telephone reservation numbers overloaded.
RAI responded to accusations of lack of farsightedness saying that since 01 does not own any cinemas, releases are set through negotiations with exhibitors. And that the film on the Italian Risorgimento, in which the public broadcaster invested €3m, will soon air on public TV.
In an article published today in a national daily paper, sarcastically entitled “We Still Believe,” co-screenwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo publicly thanked the 288 filmgoers who last Saturday packed Bari’s Piccolo Cinema, in a kind of Carbonari ritual, and said that there will be more prints released next weekend. 01, however, has not confirmed.
(Translated from Italian)
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