Abstract/Summary

The post-war market for films in Italy resembles those found in other developed capitalist economies, in which supply adjusts to demand through a set of institutional arrangements designed to maximize revenue for the film distributor. The outcome is a statistical distribution of revenues that manifests extreme levels of inequality, indicating that the hits of the day were ‘giants’ in relation to the median film and enjoyed throughout the territory. By drawing upon film industry sourced box-office data for five cities, Milan and Turin in the North; Naples and Bari in the South and Rome in the centre, the market mechanism can be observed operating at the city level, allowing the exploration of differences in preferences between the cities. A Relative Popularity Index (RelPOP) is introduced to measure variation in film popularity across the five cities and clear evidence is found to support the co-existence of national and local taste. This phenomenon is examined with respect to those films that were exceptionally popular throughout, and those with particular geographically specific audiences. The example of the many films that starred Totò, appealing in particular to South Italian audiences, is highlighted and contrasted with the Don Camillo series of films that were set in Emilia Romagna and which appealed differentially to filmgoers in the North.