Restrictions in Italy stemming from the spread of coronavirus has impacted negatively on the nation’s box office.
Italian cinemas were shut down this weekend and ticket revenues took a plunge as the figures for March 5 to March 8 stand at $503,000 (a 79% week-on-week drop and fully 95% off the same weekend a year earlier).
The film which currently holds the number one spot is the Italian biopic Hidden Away, which won the Best Actor award for star Elio Germano at the Berlin International Film Festival last month with a measly $104,000 gross.
Horror movie The Grudge is second with $59,000 and Bad Boys for Life (starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) occupies the third position, having earned $45,000.
As if the present woes are not enough, things aren’t looking to get better soon as on Sunday, more restrictive quarantine measures were introduced, locking down huge part of northern Italy (where about 16 million people reside).
Half the nation’s movie theaters are closed and new hygienic regulations require visitors to sit three seats apart.
With more than 7,300 confirmed coronavirus cases, Italy now holds the record for the highest number of infections aside China. The death toll in the region has risen to 366.
