“NAZA” beats “Avengers: Endgame Encore” at the Italian box office: the Gaza documentary comes first with around 1.1 million euros

NAZA, the Gaza documentary by Oscar-winning directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, produced by The Guardian, has debuted in first place at the Italian box office, leaving Disney’s Avengers: Endgame Encore behind — as Variety reports in its reporting of September 30, 2026.

The 80-minute film had been scheduled for a screening of only three days in Italy, but packed halls have forced the distributor to extend the programming: on the opening day, Monday, the documentary earned 451,872 euros with a per-screen average of 1,153 euros, while by the end of Tuesday takings reached around 1.1 million euros — according to The Guardian. In the same period, Avengers: Endgame Encore, the re-released version of the 2019 blockbuster with a new introduction and a post-credits scene, grossed around 356,000 euros, ranking second.

NAZA won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, where the premiere was greeted with a 25-minute standing ovation — the longest in the festival’s history. In packed cinemas across Italy, part of the audience held the Palestinian flag and applauded at the end of the film; at the Tibur cinema, in Rome’s San Lorenzo district, the film was watched in complete silence.

Andrea Romeo, founder of I Wonder Pictures, the film’s Italian distributor, told La Repubblica: “For as long as cinemas want to show it, NAZA will continue to be shown.” More than 150 cinemas across the country have already extended the documentary’s programming.

The success in Italy comes just a few days after the film’s much-discussed premiere in New York, where the screening was accompanied by threats and protests — further evidence of the global resonance the documentary is gaining.