Laura Carollo
Research expert covering cinema and film
Film industry in Italy - statistics & facts
Probably even Italian neorealists – and their films full of raw, sober, difficult aesthetics and themes – would grapple with depicting the hardships the movie industry in Italy has been going through. The impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the segment proved to be not only unparalleled but long-lasting. After an annual decline of 71 percent in 2020, the box office revenue in Italy went down again in 2021, before slowly rebounding to reach almost 500 million euros by 2023. The performance within the Eurozone was also lackluster. Preliminary data shows that, among countries that use the euro, Italy ranked ninth by box office revenue in 2023, behind countries like France, Germany, and Norway. The difference between Italy and the eight place – Spain– amounted to about ten million euros.
Despite being strongly impacted by the pandemic, the domestic market has shown strong signs of resilience, thus cementing Italy’s place as one of the strongest European movie markets.
The resilience of Italy's domestic movies
Not only has domestic moviemaking begun to recover, but the number of domestic movies also released exceeded pre-pandemic levels. In 2023, the number of domestic films released in Italy increased by more than 100 movies to comparison to the previous year. Another evidence of this is the contribution of Italian films to the total box office revenue in Italy. In 2023, the share stood at 24.3 percent, up from 20 percent in 2022. This percentage also puts Italy among the top six European markets where domestic movies accounted the most for their box office revenues, ranking fourth in the Eurozone.Foreign films' performance in Italy
National productions may remain strong, but Hollywood dominates Italian movie theaters. In 2023, only one of the top 10 films by box office revenue in Italy was a domestic title – the drama “C'è ancora domani” was the highest grossing movie of the year with almost 33 million euros of box office revenue. Walt Disney S.M.P. Italia reported in 2023 a box office revenue of over 100 million euros. Its two closest competitors (Warner Bros Italia and Universal) garnered about 86 and 85 million euros respectively. Historically, Warner Bros grossed dozens of millions of euros with the "Harry Potter" franchise, but the studio's all-time biggest hit in Italy was "Joker," released one year before the coronavirus reached the peninsula.Despite being strongly impacted by the pandemic, the domestic market has shown strong signs of resilience, thus cementing Italy’s place as one of the strongest European movie markets.
