Production Budget Analysis

The production budget for Nights of Cabiria (1957) has not been publicly disclosed.

CAST: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, Amedeo Nazzari, Aldo Silvani, Dorian Gray DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini CINEMATOGRAPHY: Aldo Tonti MUSIC: Nino Rota PRODUCTION: DDL Cinematografica, Les Films Marceau

Box Office Performance

Nights of Cabiria earned $766,530 domestically and $-14,485 internationally, for a worldwide total of $752,045. The film skewed heavily domestic (102%), suggesting strong North American appeal.

Profitability Assessment

Insufficient publicly available data to assess profitability.

INDUSTRY IMPACT

The American musical Sweet Charity (and its film adaptation) is based on Fellini's screenplay.

PRODUCTION NOTES

▸ Production

The name Cabiria is borrowed from the 1914 Italian film Cabiria, while the character of Cabiria herself is taken from a brief scene in Fellini's earlier film, The White Sheik. It was Masina's performance in that earlier film that inspired Fellini to make Nights of Cabiria. However, no one in Italy was willing to finance a film which featured sex workers as heroines. Finally, Dino de Laurentiis agreed to put up the money. Fellini based some of the characters on a real sex worker whom he had met while filming Il Bidone. For authenticity, he had Pier Paolo Pasolini, known for his familiarity with Rome's criminal underworld, help with the dialogue.

Nights of Cabiria was filmed in many areas around Italy, including Acilia, Castel Gandolfo, Cinecittà, Santuario della Madonna del Divino Amore, Porta Maggiore, the Baths of Caracalla and the Tiber River.