Cinema: summer boosts box office takings: up 92 per cent – but with no Italian films

Italian cinema, which has a knack for winning over film festivals, sparking cultural debate and attracting international attention (yesterday’s news reported that Martin Scorsese has accepted the proposal from the Minister for Culture, Alessandro Giuli, in agreement with the Foundation’s founding members and its President Silvia Calandrelli, to take on the role of Honorary President of the Accademia del Cinema Italiano – David di Donatello Awards). This vitality must also be reflected in a continuous programme of films, capable of filling the calendar twelve months a year. Otherwise, there is a risk that the public, left to American and British blockbusters for weeks on end, will end up associating the summer solely with Hollywood.

Price promotions do help. ‘Cinema Revolution’ and ‘Cinema in Festa’ lower the cost barrier and support the quieter months. But a discount is not, in itself, a sufficient business strategy. It may persuade people to go in once, but not to return if there’s no film on or if the cinema doesn’t offer something that their sofa can’t replicate.

Meanwhile, just before the August break, there was some good news and some less good news regarding public funding and regulations. The good news: after months of concern within the industry, the Film and Audiovisual Fund has been topped up by 200 million: an additional 50 million in 2026, with the allocation rising from 610 to 660 million, and a further 150 million in 2027, from 500 to 650 million. From 2028, annual funding will remain fixed at 500 million. ANICA and APA have welcomed what they have described as ‘an important and timely measure’.

But money is only half the story. The other half is the reform of the cinema law, now due to be debated in the Chamber of Deputies from 9 September (a delay on the original schedule), whilst the Venice Film Festival will be in full swing. The bill overhauls the funding system, provides for the establishment of the Agency for Cinema and Audiovisual Media (whose actual degree of autonomy will need to be assessed), the reorganisation of incentives and the revision of worker protections.

All this whilst the box-office is recovering. And this will need to be taken into account in terms of industrial policy. If 2026 is showing that demand exists – with the summer providing the most tangible evidence of this – the issue is gradually shifting from the survival of cinemas to the industry’s ability to sustain that demand over the long term.

Venice thus finds itself facing an industry that is in better shape than feared, but still far from being back on its feet. As mentioned, audiences have started buying tickets again, even in the summer, but the real challenge is no longer to convince them that cinema deserves to survive. It is to give them enough reasons to return without having to wait each time for Zalone, the latest franchise or the next box-office miracle. And for Italian cinema, the challenge lies in not leaving it to other months like the summer months, when audiences have shown they are there.