European cinemas focus: Italy’s exhibitor association CEO on the country’s cinema landscape

Simone Gialdini is CEO of Italy’s National Cinema Exhibitor Association (ANEC) and president of Italian industry box-office data organisation Cinetel. He was born into the exhibition sector: his family has run cinemas in Lucca, Tuscany since the Second World War. Before joining ANEC, he worked for international exhibition groups such as Pathé and UCI Cinemas.

Speaking to Screen International, Gialdini reflects on the measures Italy took in 2023 to boost admissions, the return of older audiences and how arthouse and local films are sustaining the box office in 2024. He also discusses the challenges facing Italy’s diverse exhibition sector, where nearly half of cinemas still have only one screen. 

How did the Italian box office perform in 2023?
It was a good year for Italy. We had three difficult years with the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the Italian box office suffered more than other countries. During 2022 we recovered a bit, but less than other markets like Spain, France and Germany. But last year something happened in Italy — box office grew by 62% [to hit €495m/$538m]. We caught up with other European markets. 

Why is that? You had the same international movies as the other countries.
For the first time we had a lot of important titles released in summer. Summer has traditionally been a very low season for cinemas in Italy. But last summer, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, we ran a big marketing campaign involving distributors and cinemas to support the release of international blockbusters. We also ran a separate campaign to increase ticket sales for Italian and European movies. From June to September, the ticket price for Italian and European films was fixed at €6.50 [$7] but customers only had to pay €3.50 [$3.80]; cinemas received €3 [$3.25] back from the government for each ticket sold.

We had one of our best Junes, the second-best July ever and the best August ever, in terms of box office. The promotion was also applied to new movies coming from Venice Film Festival in September. In June and September we also had the Cinema in Festa, inspired by France’s Fête du Cinéma. For five days, tickets to all movies including international blockbusters cost €3.50. All the distributors take part but there is no refund by the government.

Then, of course, we had the surprisingly good figures for Barbie and Oppenheimer, which both over­performed in Italy. And in the middle of October, Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow was released. It was the top-grossing movie in Italy of 2023, with an incredible 5.4 million admissions so far. 

How is 2024 going so far?
Last year’s strikes in America have delayed a lot of the international blockbusters. In Italy, it means there is more space in cinemas for arthouse movies, small movies and local movies which are over-­performing compared to the other countries. Attendance is 23% higher for the January-February period than 2023. 

Which films have done particularly well this year?
The number-one film in the January-­February period was Poor Things, with 1.2 million admissions. The Boy And The Heron reached almost 1 million admissions. Three Italian comedy movies — Succede Anche Nelle Migliori Famiglie (800,000 admissions), I Soliti Idioti 3 (500,000 admissions) and Pare Parecchio Parigi(450,000 admissions) — also performed well in January.

More generally, arthouse cinema is performing very well — quality films are sustaining the market. Older audiences in particular are coming back to the cinemas — that started to happen with the release of There’s Still Tomorrow.

We predict the first quarter of 2024 will be higher than 2023, but the second quarter will be down because there is no equivalent to The Super Mario Bros. Movie this year. We have some good Italian movies to support the market. From the end of August the market should be above 2023. For the year as a whole I hope we can stay level with 2023 but at the moment we are projecting for box office to be a little less. 

What do you think Italian filmmakers can learn from the success of There’s Still Tomorrow?
The movie has made the industry reflect on what the public is looking for. It was in black and white, it had a strong message and was a different story. No-one expected its success. It was a film that brought back the adult audience and has given us the confidence to try new kinds of movies and take a risk. People are looking for something different. 

How does the Italian exhibition sector compare to the rest of Europe?
Italy is different from the other main European countries. We have around 1,250 cinemas and 3,400 screens. But, out of these 1,250 cinemas, more than 600 are still one-screen cinemas. When you have a middle-sized town of 80,000-100,000 people and you have two or three cinemas with one screen each, it’s difficult for a lot of movies to be released.

The two main multiplex chains are the Italian brands of Odeon and Vue cinemas. Odeon in Italy has UCI Cinemas with 41 multi­plexes and around 420 screens. Vue has The Space Cinema, with 35 multi­plexes and around 350 screens. Each has a market share of 18% — so a 36% market share between them. In third to 10th place are Italian independent chains, which each have a share of below 2.5%. They are located in two or three regions, whereas UCI and The Space are all over the country.

The government has an annual €25m [$27m] tax credit for renewing cinemas. Two years ago, the government set up a €100m [$108m] recovery fund specifically for cinemas. Lots of cinemas have used this to upgrade. 

Have many cinemas in Italy have closed since the pandemic?
We lost around 6%-7% of screens since the pandemic. It’s not always due to financial problems, because we’ve been supported a lot by the government. The cinemas that closed, maybe they were already in difficulty before the pandemic or they have changed to become new kinds of destinations. But in the past year, we have seen new cinemas opening or existing cinemas increasing their number of screens. In three or four years, we will have more screens than we had before the pandemic. Maybe the geography of the screens will be different, but we will recover the number of screens we had.