Woody Allen’s ‘To Rome With Love’ Takes $3.7 Million in Italian Opening

The film, greeted by lukewarm reviews, unseats “Battleship” in its world premiere.

ROME — Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love took in €2.8 million ($3.7 million) in its opening weekend in Italy, making it the top-grossing film in the country and giving it the most successful opening-day total for any of Allen’s films in Italy.

To Rome received lukewarm reviews after its premiere in the Eternal City, where the film was shot, with some critics pouncing on what they said was a superficial take on the Italian capital.

But that didn’t keep the crowds away. To Rome took in more than the next five films in the rankings combined, and it more than tripled the box-office take of the previous weekend’s winner, the Peter Berg-directed sci-fi thriller Battleship, which earned $1.1 million, falling to second place in its second weekend of release. All told, To Rome was responsible for 20.5 percent of the overall weekend box office.

With its weekend take, To Rome surpassed the $2.9 million earned by Allen’s previous film, last year’s Midnight in Paris, in its opening weekend in Italy.

Allen, along with cast members Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg and Roberto Benigni, was in Rome for the April 13 world premiere of the film, Allen’s seventh in as many years set in a major European city, following London, Barcelona, and Paris. While in Rome, Allen said he would return to the U.S. for his next film, shooting in New York and San Francisco.

To Rome is scheduled to open June 22 in the U.S. and across Europe later in the summer.

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