Foreign Admissions in Italy

This infographic shows the ranking of the top ten foreign countries whose films have made the highest number of admissions on the Italian market from 2007 to 2016.

It is evident that the highest numbers by some margin are consistently achieved by the United States, exceeding 50 million admissions every year – except in 2011 – and reaching 562,2 million admissions in the decade analysed. This data is not surprising if we consider that, in the same period, the United States distributed on average between 300 and 400 films per year, saturating more than half of the market of foreign films in Italy.

The United Kingdom ranks second with 59,9 million total presences, followed by France with 37,5 million. This data may appear more surprising if we consider that France exports to Italy more films than the UK – 468 against 378, in relation to the decade analysed. The number of total admissions, therefore, seems to indicate that the Italian audience prefers English films to French ones. The other countries in the ranking reach marginal shares, from 7,6 million in Germany to 1,8 million in Denmark.

Furthermore, this infographic shows a significant decrease of the admissions of foreign films in Italy in 2011. This is due to the excellent performance that Italian cinema recorded at the domestic box office in the 2010/2011 season. Just think that in the top ten of the Italian box office, six positions were occupied by Italian productions: Che bella giornata (Gennaro Nunziante, 2011), Benvenuti al Sud (Luca Miniero, 2010), La banda dei Babbi Natale (Paolo Genovese, 2010), Natale in Sudafrica (Neri Parenti, 2010), Qualunquemente (Giulio Manfredonia, 2011), Immaturi (Paolo Genovese, 2011). Above all, we note the brilliant performance of Gennaro Nunziante’s comedy with Checco Zalone, which grossed more than 43 million and reached 6 million admissions.