While Trump threatens duties on foreign films, Italy attracts large US productions with dream locations and tax incentives. And relaunches national cinema with festivals and promotion abroad
While American president Donald Trump threatens to extend the war of duties also to the film sector – assuming an entrance fee for foreign films in the United States – Hollywood continues to dominate undisputed in Italian theaters. In 2024, the US films have in fact grabbed more than half of the collections at the National Botteghino: 268 million euros, equal to 54.2% of the total, with 36.4 million spectators, or 52.3% of the presences.
In comparison, Italian cinema – including co -productions – remains behindwith 121.4 million euros (24.6%) and about 18 million spectators (25.7%). An evident gap, also fueled by the disproportion between American blockbusters and Italian productions: The greatest success of 2024 was Inside Out 2with 46.5 million of euros collected, while The boy with pink trousersbetter result among Italian films, has achieved i 9 millionplacing himself in tenth place in the absolute ranking.
Faced with such an unbalanced market, initiatives to promote Italian cinema abroad they become more and more strategic. Among these stands out Open Roads: New Italian Cinemathe main showcase of our cinema in North America. The review, organized by Cinecittà in collaboration with Film at Lincoln Center, will take place in New York from 29 May to 5 Junebringing to the big screen 14 titles who have marked the recent film season. Many will be presented in a preview of American and citizen, with the aim of intercepting the attention of industry and the US public, especially in view of the Oscars.
But despite the American invasion in Italian cinemas, the opposite flow – that of Hollywood productions in Italy – is far from marginal. Cinecittà and the regional commission films work intensely to attract international sets, thanks to a system of Highly competitive tax Credittogether with iconic locations and a favorable climate. A mix that continues to seduce the great American majors, more and more often looking for suggestive scenarios and savings on production costs.
“We know how much the American productions benefit from our tax incentives, and even more than that ecosystem of beauties, climate, location, culture, style, for which they have always chosen Italy looking for quality that are not found in other places”, said the Cinecittà delegated administrator, Emanuela Cacciamani. The hope, he added, is that the continuous “cooperation”, for the benefit of a “economic and cultural enrichment of the spectators of the world”.
To worry Trump and part of Hollywood, in fact, is precisely the phenomenon of delocalization of productionsmore and more frequent and advantageous for the cinema giants. Currently, they are active 30 film sets in Italyincluding some important US productions: The Dog Starsdirected by Ridley Scott, e The Odysseysigned by Christopher Nolan for Universal Pictures, with the production of Emma Thomas and their Syncopy house.
Scott started shooting on April 25th And it will work for about two months, involving over 400 Italian professionals and more than 100 foreigners. Nolan, on the other hand, will shoot for 12 weeks, taking 220 Italian workers and 250 US. Overall, since the beginning of the year, the sets started in Italy have been 105of which a dozen with international participation. However, having a detailed picture of the economic effects of the sector remains complex.
“We are working on it, but as far as work is concerned, it is a very difficult sector to monitor for INPS too,” explained Sabina Di Marco, National Slc CGIL secretary. The trade unionist does not spare criticism of Trump’s proposal: “The fact remains that this debate is surreal and embarrassing: not only the idea of the duties is uneconomical but it is the very denial of the idea of culture that is without borders, transnational”.
An idea, that of the duties on foreign films, which has already raised legal tensions in the United States. Bob Salladay, Senior Advisor for the communication of the Governor of California Gavin Newsom, told the site Deadline: “We believe that President Donald Trump does not have the authority to impose duties pursuant to the Internazional Economic Emergency Powers Act, since the duties are not listed as a remedy in this law”. Not surprisingly, California was the first state to sue the White House on this front, and new legal actions could soon follow it.
