Super Sunday, super weekend and grosses at the Italian box office for Universal’s Fast X, the latest incarnation of the Vin Diesel headlined blockbuster series. The Louis Leterrier-directed motor action movie earned €6.3 million in just four days, despite the torrential rain that has hammered certain areas of northern Italy (mainly the industrious, flat and watery Emilia-Romagna region, which was badly flooded: theaters were closed, as was everything else after the area suffered this Italian version of Katrina.) Without the flooding in the North, Fast X might have done even higher business.

In terms of grosses and attendance, this was the best week of 2023, even better than the week of The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s debut last month. Fast X’s success was no surprise in view of the massive business the movie is doing all over the world, where it has already amassed $276 million ($77.4 million in China alone, where it had the biggest opening in 2023 for a non-Chinese film).

The May rain in Italy has generally helped traffic at theaters (with the above-mentioned exception), bringing moviegoers into the dry dark space of the cinema to enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which grossed €367,000 for the week-end, and a total of €10 million, and again The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which has hit the €20 million mark in grosses since its debut in April.

Just out of the podium the grosses were not that good, although decent, for Italy’s standard: the Russian animated Maurice – Un topolino al museo [A mouse at the museum] earned €63,000  for a total of  437,000, followed by Italian writer-director Pupi Avati’s nostalgic comedy-drama La quattordiecesima domenica del tempo ordinario, with €44,00  for the weekend and a total of €3.7 million, followed by another Italian production, Nanni Moretti’s highly personal film-within-a film story Il sol dell’avvenire (which is inching towards €4 million in total grosses in Italy alone).

Rounding up the top 10 at the Italian box-office are Book Club: The Next Chapter, with Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen as best friends who take a book tour of Italy and have the time of their lives (€41,000, total €436,000), the offbeat and critically acclaimed French-Cambodian drama Ritorno a Seoul [Return to Seoul] (€37,000  for the week-end), Mavka e la Foresta Incantata and the American comedy Love Again.

Upcoming this coming week are The Little Mermaid, the Rob Marshall directed live action adaptation of the 1989 Disney cartoon, Sanctuary, Daliland, Roger Waters – This is Not a Drill, and Il respiro della foresta, among others.

Following is the complete Top 10 results at the Italian box-office (weekend and total) for the week ending May 21, 2023, according to Cinetel – all figures are in euros:

1 – FAST X– €1,854,152 – Tot. 6,368,112

2 – GUARDIANI DELLA GALASSIA – VOL. 3– €367,975 – Tot. 9,748,640

3 – SUPER MARIO BROS. – IL FILM: €122,475 – Tot. 20,143,493

4 – MAURICE – UN TOPOLINO AL MUSEO: €63,440 – Tot. 427,634

5 – LA QUATTORDICESIMA DOMENICA DEL TEMPO ORDINARIO: €9,075 – Tot. 772,264

6 – IL SOL DELL’AVVENIRE: €44,737 – Tot. 3,691,619

7 – BOOK CLUB 2 – IL CAPITOLO SUCCESSIVO: €41,124 – Tot. 426,967

8 – RITORNO A SEOUL: €37,077 – Tot. 171,152

9 – MAVKA E LA FORESTA INCANTATA: €34,613 – Tot. 1,219,315

10 – LOVE AGAIN: €22,521 – Tot. 279,949