Cinema box office takings and ticket sales more than double in 2023

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 10 - In 2023 ticket sales at Italian cinemas stood at 70.639. 346, translating into box office takings of 495,692,418 euro, according to Cinetel data released on Wednesday.
    This represented an increase in admissions and box office takings respectively of 58.6% and 61.6% over 2022.
    However, ticket sales and revenue were still down, respectively by 23.2% and 16.3%, compared to the average for the period 2017-2019, before the Covid 19 pandemic.
    Cinetel also said 2023 saw the return en masse of women and adults to movie theatres.
    In 2023 Italian productions and co-productions accounted for 24.3% of box office takings and 25.9% of ticket sales, corresponding to a revenue of 120.6 million euro (+100% compared to 2022) and 18.2 million admissions (+93.9%).
    This is a higher share than in 2022, when Italian films accounted for 19.7% of box office takings and 21.2% of ticket sales, and also than the average for the period 2017-2019 (20.6% of revenue and 21% of admissions).
    In 2023, 736 new first-release titles were distributed in Italian cinemas (+235 compared to 2022; +194 compared to the 2017-2019 average).
    Of these, 356 were Italian productions or co-productions (+104 compared to 2022; +135 compared to the 2017-2019 average), translating into a 48.4% share of the total.
    Italian productions or co-productions represented 50.3% of the share of new first-release titles in 2022 and 40.8% in the average for the period 2017-2019.
    Italian actress Paola Cortellesi's directorial debut C'e' Ancora Domani (There's Still Tomorrow) on domestic violence (see photo) Italian comic and actress Paola Cortellesi's directorial debut C'e' Ancora Domani (There's Still Tomorrow) on domestic violence surpassed the cult phenomenon Barbie as the highest-grossing film at the Italian box office in 2023, according to Cinetel data.
    The black-and-white film, telling the domestic drama of an abused housewife in post-war Rome and confronting issues of patriarchy and women's empowerment in the year Italian women got to vote for the first time, grossed over 32,250,000 euro, while Greta Gerwig's film starring Margot Robbie as the most famous fashion doll was at around 32,122,000 euro.
    Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer took third place at around 27,990,000 euro. (ANSA).