“Spotlight” soars at Italy box office after Oscar winMarch 7, 2016 - 15:16 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Building on the momentum of its best-picture Oscar win, Spotlight grossed $1 million on 297 screens this past weekend in Italy, an increase of 43 percent from last weekend, The Hollywood Reporter reveals. This is more than one-fifth of the $4.8 million international gross that Spotlight brought in overall this past weekend in its post-Oscar victory lap, a 124 percent increase across international territories. To date, it has grossed $2.6 million in Italy. To compare, the $1 million weekend revenue is approximately 13 percent higher than Birdman’s post-Oscar weekend in Italy, when it grossed $885,000 on its way to a total of $5.4 million throughout its run in the country. Spotlight has been a huge media draw in the Catholic country. Michael Keaton, and the man he plays in the film, Boston Globe editor Walter Robinson, toured Rome in January where they praised the investigative journalism behind the film that brought to light the abuses of the Catholic church from Boston all the way up to the Vatican. In February, the pope’s anti-abuse commission kicked off its meetings with a private screening of the film. One member of the commission, Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, later commented that the screening had encouraged church leaders to recommend it to their peers. “It’s a strong invitation to reflect and to take seriously the central message, namely, that the Catholic Church can and must be transparent, fair and committed to the fight against abuse and so that this never happens again,” he said in an interview with Vatican Radio. While the Vatican has not commented directly on the film, Vatican-owned newspaper L'Osservatore Romano praised the film for giving a voice to victims and insisted that the film was not anti-Catholic. Vatican Radio had previously reviewed the film as "honest" and "compelling." Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Biden honors resilience of Armenian people on April 24 U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a statement on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. Macron says France commemorates 109th anniv. of Armenian genocide Today France commemorates the 109th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915, Macron says. Freedom House concerned by mounting reports of police violence in Armenia Freedom House urged Armenian authorities to investigate this pattern of excessive force and inhumane treatment. |