TORONTO – Pupi Avati one of Italy’s Horror Film masters, best known for his Giallo masterpieces The House with Laughing Windows (1976) and Zeder (1983), has proposed that Italy’s Government should create a Ministry of Cinema. The news came via Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani who first circulated the notion on his X page last month. 

“Pupi Avati told me about his idea of creating the Ministry of Cinema. It is an interesting proposal to promote the cultural, audiovisual and multimedia content that has always given Italy prestige and helped promote our products – cinema, a key sector of Made in Italy,” wrote Tajani. The filmmaker’s wishful thinking has the Deputy Prime Minister determined to have the suggestion “analyzed with government allies.”

It’s worth noting that the film industry is a significant economic driver, which carries “add-on benefits” as was put in a recent UK study by Creative PEC and the BFI. The groups produced a new economic analysis on cinemas and their wholistic market value, beyond the box office gate sales.

The commission found that in the UK, on average, a cinema generates £1.18m a year in ticket sales and memberships. More importantly they highlighted a previously unmeasured economic benefit or “add-on” benefit from having cinemas present in the community. The surveyed groups overwhelmingly said that their cinema experience is nearly always accompanied by dinner reservations or drinks at a local bar. And a majority of respondents (53%) cited that an outing to the cinema is always paired with shopping.

The study concluded that on average these “add-ons” is worth up to £600k of additional economic social value a year. Most telling was that among the 2000 cinema-users surveyed, they all said they would be willing to pay double the cost of an average cinema ticket if it meant saving a cinema from closing down.

Considering that Italy’s cinema market is witnessing a resurgence and increased audience interest, it might make perfect sense to single out the film sector – and not bundle it within an overcrowded “culture” portfolio. With some forward thinking, new initiatives and targets, Italy’s 5 billion annual box office might grow to 15 billion within the decade. Where there’s a will.

In the pics: Pupi Avati and Cinema Teatro Odeon      

Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix