Gaza Documentary Tops Italian Box Office, Beating Hollywood's Encore Titles

NAZA, the award-winning documentary about Israel's mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, has opened at No 1 at the Italian box office, according to the Guardian, which produced the film. The paper reported on Wednesday that the documentary beat rival titles including Avengers: Endgame: Encore, and that its run was extended after screenings sold out.

The result is unusual for a non-fiction release in Italy, where the theatrical market is dominated by franchise films, family comedies and local productions. The Guardian framed the opening as a commercial surprise as much as a political one, noting the film's focus on what it describes as a systemic campaign against civilians in the territory.

For the Cultura desk, the box-office figure is the news: a foreign-produced documentary has reached the top of a national chart, and Italian distributors have responded by holding it in cinemas rather than treating it as a limited engagement. The Guardian's own account is the source for the ranking and the extension.

The Guardian reported that NAZA had already collected awards on the festival circuit before its Italian release, and that demand in Italian cities prompted the extension. The paper did not publish a precise euro figure for the opening weekend in the item reviewed here, so the scale of the result beyond the No 1 position cannot be stated with confidence.

Italy's cinema sector has spent the past two years arguing about attendance, screen numbers and the place of documentary in a market shaped by streaming. A documentary taking the top spot, even briefly, gives distributors an argument they have been making to exhibitors: that non-fiction can carry a wide release when the subject has political urgency.

The Guardian's culture desk has covered the film's reception closely, and its Italian box-office report treats the ranking as evidence that the subject travels beyond the Anglo-American market. The paper also noted that the film's Italian run was expanded after sell-outs, which is the detail that distinguishes this from a routine opening.

What happens next depends on whether the extension holds through October, when the Italian release calendar fills with awards-season titles. The Guardian's report does not project a final gross, and no Italian figures are cited here; the confirmed facts remain the No 1 opening, the titles it beat, and the extension of the run.