Gaza documentary NAZA beats Avengers to No. 1 in Italy
A documentary about the war in Gaza has taken No. 1 at the Italian box office ahead of a Marvel re-release, Variety reported on 30 September.
NAZA grossed roughly €1.1 million ($1.2 million) in Italy on Monday and Tuesday, 28-29 September, in its first theatre outing after its Venice launch. It beat Avengers: Endgame Encore. That film took €356,000 ($404,000) in Italy over the same two days, in its second week in Italian cinemas.
The wider market looked very different. Avengers: Endgame Encore topped the worldwide box office with $86 million for 25-27 September, ScreenDaily reported on 28 September. Heart of the Beast opened to $50 million worldwide in the same frame. In domestic theatres, the United States and Canada, Avengers: Endgame Encore took $26 million at No. 1, in what Deadline on 27 September called the second-best late September weekend ever for the marketplace.
NAZA runs 80 minutes and screened in the Venezia 83 Competition, according to La Biennale. It was directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors of the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land. The festival's official awards list NAZA by Abraham and Szor as the Special Jury Prize winner at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale announced on 12 September. It received a 24.5-minute ovation at Venice.
The film is produced by The Guardian and JW Films, with Jonathan Glazer as executive producer and MK2 handling international distribution, the sale of cinema rights outside the home country.
Its Italian release through I Wonder Pictures was first planned as a three-day event running 28-30 September. The run was extended after strong advance ticket sales, with numerous screenings sold out before premiere. Demand found favour fast.
The next steps are already set. The film is to be released in theatres in more than 50 territories, then made available to global audiences for free through The Guardian website in late November. In the United States, the theatre rollout starts on 30 September exclusively at the IFC Center in New York City, led by The Guardian and MK2 without a sale to a studio or independent distributor.
What makes this stand out is the route to screens. An 80-minute festival documentary, released event-style and handled without a traditional distributor in the US, has out-sold a Marvel title in one national market while that same title led the global chart.
