Back in 1973 legendary Roman folk singer Gabriella Ferri gave life to one of Italy’s summer anthems by definition. “Tutti ar mare, tutti ar mare, a mostra’ le chiappe chiare”, she sang with her distinctive hoarse voice, inviting everyone to go to the beach, to show off their “pale buttocks”. Just like 50 years ago, as soon as the warm southern sun starts to kick in, Italians flock towards the closest sea resort for the weekend, and forget about all the rest, including going to the movies. Adding insult to injury is the fact that face masks are still mandatory in theaters, albeit they’ve been dismissed in most social activities.

As the temperature rises, revenues in theaters will freeze. Until September, the only films that have a chance to score six digits in the domestic market will be long-awaited blockbusters like the upcoming Top Gun Maverick (out on the 25^th of May). Around 130 Italian productions are ready (or almost ready) but don’t have a release date yet, and every month 10-20 titles add to the count. No wonder well-known directors like Verdone, Genovese, Ferzan, and Muccino are moving towards online distribution platforms and pay-tv. 

Last week’s box office numbers confirm the trend. Only one movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, made it over a million euros. Notably, € 3.094.039, totaling € 11.407.683 since its release (May 4^th), dropping about 60% compared to last week yet becoming Italy’s second best-grossing film in the last two years, behind Spiderman: No Way Home (€ 20 million).

Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore sits on the second step of this week’s podium but is literally light years away from the first position. It grossed only €195.490 in the last seven days, roughly € 8 million since it first hit the silver screen over a month ago. Operation Mincemeat didn’t do well in its first week out with a meager grossing of €168.070, followed by Dog, at the fourth position with €140.140. The latter, directed by and starring Channing Tatum and the Belgian Malinois Lulu is collecting very positive reviews and might make it to the podium next week. Downtown Abbey – A New Era is at #5 (€ 126.190 and a total of € 967.170).

When it comes to Italian films, Tutankhamon, a documentary directed by Ernesto Pagano lands at #6 raking in € 90.704 during its only three days in theaters (May 9-11). On the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamon’s tomb, the documentary retraces this great discovery by showing the priceless treasures of the young Egyptian pharaoh. The last four positions are occupied by Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (€ 87,384, € 4,014,465 total), The 355 (€77,080), Settembre, an Italian film directed by Giulia Steigerwalt which premiered at the BIF&ST in Bari: a choral comedy, in which the characters try to survive in search of a more authentic human contact. With a gross of €68,130, the film has taken home €200,000 since its May 5 release. Closing the (low-key) ranking is Firestarter, with € 67,800.