05/12/2003

There’s been an increase in the number of screens, but not in the audience figures: this is the overview of the Italian box office in 2003, a year has proved to be fairly stable overall. Between January and November 2003, the cinemas covered by the Cinetel data have registered a total audience of 74,376,190, virtually the same (-0.1%) as the same period in 2002, while the number of screens have risen to 2,496 which is a 9% increase on 2002.

The figures were published yesterday at the Sorrento Screenings, and they were commented upon by the presidents of the associations representing cinema operators, Walter Vacchino (ANEC) and Carlo Bernaschi (ANEM) and the president of the distributors association, Richard Borg (UNIDIM). They stated that the stability of the Italian cinema market should be seen as a positive thing, especially given the scarsity of big blockbusters, and it is particularly positive when compared with the situation abroad. In fact, in the major European countries, the number of tickets sold in the first 8/10 months of the year vary from between -3.6% in Spain and -14% in Germany, with falls also recorded in Britain (-10%) and France (-8.6%) .

But there has been a sharp drop in the average audience per screen (-8.30%). The overall result shows that the Italian market hasn’t managed to break the barrier of 110 million tickets sold a year, and thus it stays bottom of the list of the major Euyropean countries. Other concerns for the Italian cinematographic industry are the economic crisis, the safeguarding of structures at risk and the threat of audiovisual piracy.

However Italian cinema is doing well. Up until the end of November Italian films had a market share of more than 19%, which matches last year’s good performance, when Italian films captured a market share of 22% to the end of December, thanks largely to the excellent performance of Pinocchio [+see also:
trailer
film profile].