Italy has the honour of being the biggest theatrical market outside of Japan for Wim Wenders’ Japanese-language, Cannes prize-winner , with takings of $6.2m (€5.7m), representing 16% of worldwide box office.
In fact, a whole series of arthouse films have performed strongly in Italy this year. The territory posted some of the top box-office results worldwide for titles such as , , , and . The common thread linking all of them is Lucky Red, the Italian distributor that handled their theatrical release.
Coming up on its slate are anticipated arthouse titles such as , , , and . It is also distributing Andrea Segre’s political biopic , the opening film of Rome Film Festival, which is being released on October 31 in more than 250 cinemas. Lucky Red currently sits in fifth place in the 2024 distributor rankings in Italy, based on box-office takings.
Ahead are the big Hollywood players — Disney, Warner Bros, Universal and Eagle Pictures (which releases Paramount and Sony titles in Italy). Below Lucky Red sits Rai Cinema’s distribution arm 01 Distribution, Mediaset-owned Medusa and Sky-backed Vision. For the first two months of the year, Lucky Red was the leading Italian film distributor with a market share of 17% thanks to its strong slate of international arthouse titles and delays to Hollywood releases caused by 2023’s US actors and writers strikes.
It is currently standing at a 7.6% share of the 2024 market in Italy, with total box office of $28.8m (€26.
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