Italian multihyphenate Gennaro Nunziante is understandably very proud.
Having co-written and directed five films starring Italian comedy sensation Cecco Zalone, the writer-director and occasional actor has become part of a record-breaking feat. This week, their latest collaboration, in which Zarone plays a wealthy, profligate father who drives around Spain’s famous Camino de Santiago in a red Ferrari, has grossed more than 73 million euros ($87 million) in its five weeks since its release from Italy’s Medusa, and is still counting.
“Buen Camino” surpassed Zarone’s previous record for local titles. The last time he recorded it was in 2016 with “Quo Vado,” the story of a slacker from southern Italy who tries to hang on to a parasitic government job even after being transferred to the North Pole.
More importantly, Buen Camino also surpassed Italy’s all-time box office record ($82 million), previously held by Avatar.
Since its release on December 25th and throughout the holiday season, Buen Camino has “held a 70% share of the Italian market and remained at the top of the box office for five weeks, making it the highest-grossing film in Italian history,” Medusa director Giampaolo Letta said in a statement.
“Buen Camino” is produced by Indiana Production, a subsidiary of Italy’s Vuelta. The blockbuster was spearheaded by Marco Cohen of Indiana, who says he has received more than a dozen requests for international remake rights.
“At a time when many of us as producers are wondering whether it still makes sense to make theatrical films, it’s amazing to see that a film like ‘Buen Camino’ has summoned more than 9 million Italians from their homes to go see it,” Cohen said, noting that research shows that one in four of the film’s audience is under the age of 24.
Vuelta President Jerome Levy said: “As Vuelta, we are thrilled to be able to produce ‘Buen Camino’ and to be able to work with such great Italian talent as Gennaro Nunziante and Cecco Zalone.” He added: “This project embodies Vuelta’s aim to become a hub for Europe’s best creatives and realize their ambitions.”
Below, Variety talks to Nunziante about how he and Zalone achieved box office success and why it’s time for them to aim for a global break.
Simply put, how does it feel to have directed such a blockbuster?
This time I made a different (type of) movie, so I’m having a lot of fun. What’s different, I think, is that we added a sentimental element to the laughter and fun. And this sentimental element that we added moved me, because neither Luca (aka Czech Zalone) nor I did anything to provoke it. We didn’t have a mission to make a sentimental film. As fathers of young women, both Luca and I had asked ourselves about the role of fathers today, so it was natural. This automatically evokes that emotion, and now I see the audience taking it home.
What do you think is the secret to this film’s success?
I think there are several factors, but I would like to highlight the most important ones. It’s about Checco accepting the challenge of expanding the range of characters. It’s not the average Italian, or Italians defined as such, who take the risk of playing rich for the first time. The element was a kind of energy catalyst. In addition to this, there are certainly things that happened along the way (during the pilgrimage). There is a kind of inherent magnetism to this journey that becomes ours. Because when you really come across a story that’s bigger than your own, after thousands of years, you have to commit to understanding it with some degree of accuracy. Before this film was released, many (Pilgrimage to Santiago) pilgrim websites were very wary of what would happen after the film, imagining that we might trample on some of their values and beliefs. But now, the same website is instead paying attention to the film and treating it with respect.
Do you think Buen Camino has more international appeal than Zarone’s previous films? Is this something you both aspire to?
Yes, absolutely. We are now in exactly the same position as “Quo Vado” ten years ago. The world outside of Italy is amazed at our box office success and wonders, “How did these guys pull it off?” But this time, they took it to the next level and not just in terms of box office success. This film has much more international appeal compared to ‘Quo Vado’. It is up to Checco to explore this element further and sail towards a broader horizon. But it’s also because Indiana itself has a mission to look beyond Italy, and we all have a strong desire to make this happen.
