Cinema, l’estate spinge il box office: +92% Ma senza film italiani

Italian cinema arrives at the cusp of the 83rd Venice Film Festival (September 2-12) with a surprise revealed by the numbers: the audience is there. When it finds a film capable of becoming an event, the ticket is bought. At least in 2026, it is doing so much more often. As of August 23, the Italian box office reached 422.9 million, with a 46% jump compared to both 2025 and 2024.

Attendance rose to 55.3 million, a 36% increase from last year. Italian film revenues have also grown, led by Buen Camino by Zalone: 94.5 million at the box office (+14%), with 900,000 more spectators over the year, reaching 12.9 million. However, it is the summer that delivers the true surprise: from June 1 to August 23, box office revenues soared to 149.5 million, a 92% increase compared to 2025 and a 49% increase from 2024.

These numbers seem to distance themselves, at least for now, from the prophecy of a condemned hall due to the rapid advance of streaming. But they do not authorize triumphalism. The recovery is strong and uneven: it is fueled by big titles, peaks, and recognizable appointments. Cinema is not dead, but it has become much more selective.

The box office ranking demonstrates this. "Odyssey" leads in 2026 with 52.1 million, ahead of "Buen Camino" at 76.6 million for the Big Ticket Gold (November 1 to October 31) and surpassing 40 million in 2026 alone. Then "Spiderman" with 34.9 million, "The Devil Wears Prada 2" at 32.2, and Michael at 25.8 million. The picture is therefore that of a market where the event film continues to shift masses of spectators, while the mainstream segment struggles to keep pace.

In the first quarter, seven films produced half of the box office receipts. This context puts the summer record at the forefront, revealing perhaps the most striking contradiction of the Italian product: between June 1 and August 23, while revenues reached 149.5 million and 19.2 million attendees, Italian films collected only 4.5 million, representing 3% of the total, compared to 7% in 2025 and 7.5% in 2024.

The only Italian title seen during the period, "The Flat Cities of the Plain," stopped at 478,000 euros. For Italian cinema that knows how to conquer festivals, cultural debate, and international attention (it was yesterday that Martin Scorsese accepted Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli's proposal for an alliance with the founding sociators of the Fondazione and President Silvia Calandrelli to assume the Honorary Presidency of the Italian Cinema Academy - David Prize), this vitality must also be reflected in a continuous industrial offer capable of presiding over the twelve-month calendar.

Otherwise, there is the risk that the audience, left with American and British blockbusters for entire weeks, ends up associating the summer only with Hollywood. Campaigns on price help. Cinema Revolution and Cinema in Festa lower the cost barrier and support the weaker months. But the discount is not sufficient in itself as an industrial policy.

It can convince once to enter, not to return if there is no film or if the hall does not offer something the couch cannot replicate. Meanwhile, just before the August break, good and bad news arrived on the front of public resources and rules. The good news is that the Fund for Cinema and Audiovisual has been replenished with 200 million: 50 million more in 2026, with the allocation rising from 610 to 660 million, and an additional 150 million in 2027, from 500 to 650 million.

The annual funding remains fixed at 500 million from 2028. Anica and Apa welcomed this important and timely intervention, but the money is only half the equation. The other is the pending reform of the cinema law, now awaiting the Chamber since September 9 (with a postponement compared to the initial forecasts), while Venice is in full swing.

This moves the system of aids, creates the Agency for Cinema and Audiovisual (which must be verified for its autonomy), reorders incentives, and reviews labor protections. All this while the film industry is alive. If 2026 shows that demand exists - with the summer providing the most tangible evidence - the problem gradually shifts from the survival of the hall to the industry's ability to feed it continuously.

Venice is facing a sector that is less ill than feared, but still far from being cured. The audience, as said, has started buying tickets, even in summer, but the real challenge is no longer convincing them that cinema deserves to live. It needs to give them enough reasons to return without waiting for Zalone, the new franchise, or the next miracle at the box office.

And for Italian cinema, there is the challenge of not leaving other months like the summer, where audiences have shown they are there.