In Italy there are only 1.000 cinemas left

The Embassy Cinema in Rome's Parioli neighborhood can be considered a symbol of what is happening in Italy. It hasn't been operating as a movie theater since 2018, nearly twenty years, and no one has ever managed to convert it, as they initially planned, into yet another local supermarket. A skeleton remains, now degraded and dilapidated. And an entire neighborhood, Parioli, the heart of Rome's high-end residential district, now has only one small arthouse cinema. Unfortunately, the Embassy case is not an isolated one.

Cinemas in Italy are literally disappearing, along with newsstands. Fewer than 1.000 remain, a third of what they were a few years ago.

The closure of a cinema is not only an economic loss, it is a multiple waste: cultural, social, economic, and urban. To fully understand it, it's important to look at it from multiple perspectives.

A cinema is a hub for the dissemination of culture, not just entertainment.

 

When do you close:

• access to “quality” or independent cinema is reduced
• reviews, retrospectives, local festivals disappear
• the role of cinema as a collective experience is weakened

In a country with a tradition like Italy's, this weighs heavily.

A social waste

With the closure of a cinema, a meeting place also disappears. More specifically:

• a meeting point for neighborhoods (especially suburbs)
• a safe space for young and old
• an opportunity for community life outside the home

When it closes, it is often not replaced by anything equivalent.

Many cinemas are historic buildings:

• remain empty or abandoned
• they degrade over time
• contribute to the decline of the surrounding areas
• they transform into supermarkets

In cities like Rome or Milan, many former cinemas have now been closed down or converted into shops, supermarkets, and gyms, losing their original function.

An economic waste

• loss of direct and indirect jobs
• less induced for nearby restaurants, bars, shops
• loss of initial investment (structure, systems).