Italian cinema produces more and more. The market, much less. The economic problem is all here: 1,002 films in theaters without a corresponding growth in viewers and revenues.
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The most eloquent data, however, is the average revenue per film. In 2019, the ratio between box office and new releases was about 1.3 million euros per title. In 2025 it fell below 500 thousand. Between 2022 and 2025, the distributed films doubled, from 501 to 1,002. The product doubles, not the market.
The snapshot comes from the Rome Business School report “Italian cinema: more films, fewer viewers,” curated by Francesco Baldi and Valerio Mancini. In 2025, theaters earned 496.6 million with 68.4 million admissions: respectively 22% and 30% below 2019. Between 2023 and 2025, revenues remained almost flat, while admissions decreased by 3.2%. In 2025 alone, revenues rose by 0.5% and viewers fell by 2%.
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It is not the ticket price that explains the slowdown. The average price, 7.26 euros in 2025 compared to 6.51 in 2019, increased by 11.5%, less than the cumulative inflation, over 19%. In real terms, going to the cinema costs less.
“A greater richness of the offer can therefore coexist with a lower average ability of each work to intercept viewers and revenues,” says Mancini. This is the industrial issue: the increase in production dilutes the average value available for each title and increases competition for screens, promotion, and attention.
