Cinema regionalpopolare. Fattori d’attrazione del consumo locale dei film italiani (2000-20)

Abstract

The article, based on data on admissions and distribution of all films shown in Italy over the last twenty years, investigates the factors responsible for the great regional variability in the consumption of Italian cinema. The great regionalization of the consumption of domestic films does not, in fact, depend on particular geographical imbalances in their distribution, and clearly distinguishes the consumption of domestic films from that of imported ones, which are consumed more homogeneously throughout the country. The analysis of the nine major regional markets clearly shows how particular textual factors – such as the setting, the geographical origin of actors and directors, some "local" plots – strongly attract audiences from specific territories. The concentration of the spectators of Italian films in single regions, different from one title to another, is such a peculiar characteristic of the cinema of national production that it can be said that in Italy even the most successful films do not really have a geographically extensive success. A national-popular cinema in Italy does not exist, because Italian cinema is, in fact, consistently "regional-popular".