The Italian box office softened by 0.4% in 2024 for an overall gross of $508M, on the back of a 1.3% dip in spectators to 69.7M, according to data detailed by Italy’s box office data monitor Cinetel on Thursday.
The body suggested the results were broadly positive in a challenging year marked by big sporting diversions such as the Euro 2024 soccer championships and the Paris 2024 Olympics as well as fewer potential blockbuster releases in the wake of the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
The top performing movie was Inside Out 2, which drew 6.4M spectators for a $47M (€46.5M) gross, followed by Moana 2 ($19.9M), Deadpool & Wolverine ($18.5M), Despicable Me 4 ($18.1M) and Mufasa – The King Lion ($15.1M).
No Italian production made it into the top five – unlike 2023, when Paolo Cortellesi’s unexpected blockbuster There’s Still Tomorrow beat Barbie with a $35M gross – but Cinetel said local films had held their own in the overall market nonetheless.
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“In spite of the absence of a title with an extraordinary result like There’s Still Tomorrow, Italian productions (co-productions included) accounted for 24.6% of the box office, against 24.3% in 2023, and 25.7% of spectators, against 25.9%,” said the body.
The overall box office for Italian films was $144.9M, which was 0.6% higher than 2023, while spectators were down 2.2% to 17.8M.
“This is a higher share than the average for the 2017-2019 period, 20.6% of gross and 21% of attendance)… and close to that of the entire 2010-2019 decade, (26.2% takings, 27.1% attendance),” said Cinetel.
The top five Italian films were teenage suicide drama The Boy with Pink Trousers, which drew 1.4M for a $9.2M gross, followed by Paolo Sorrentino’s Naples-set Cannes selected drama Parthenope ($7.7M), comedy-drama A World Apart ($7.5M), Ferzan Özpetek’s female-focused drama Diamanti, revolving around a tailor’s workshop in 1970s Rome, ($7.7M) and police buddy comedy Io e te dobbiamo parlare ($7.6M).
Another bright spot, said Cinetel, was an increase in younger spectators attendance for three to 14 year olds up 31% on 2023, while there was a 13% increase for spectators between the age of 15 to 24 years old, which was the the biggest cinema-going demographic, accounting for 25% of tickets sold.
Cinetel compared Italy’s performance with the rest of Europe, where so far, France is the only territory where the box office strengthened in 2024, with a 0.5% uptick in the overall gross to $1.36B.
Looking at other European territories, Cinetel noted Italy’s box office result was in line with the UK, where the overall gross eased by 0.1%, and better than Spain which registered a 2.6% dip in the overall gross and a 5.5% drop in spectators, and Germany where the box office fell by 7.4%, with a 6.4% fall-off in attendance.
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