After years in which he was mostly talked about only due to stormy private events, between Milanese nightlife and relational swings, Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio’s attempt at metamorphosis is there for all to see. From reckless billionaire heir to unscrupulous entrepreneur.
We discovered him in this cravatted guise following his bizarre appearance in prime time in the program “Otto e mezzo” hosted on La7 by Lilli Gruber. To counterbalance in a pop key, some time later Del Vecchio went in a black t-shirt to the – admittedly – conflict of interest space of “Pulp Podcast”, where he found the caresses of his friend and business partner Fedez who did not fail to praise him as a young industrialist (Del Vecchio was born in 1995) who loves Italy and who pays taxes in Italy.
On the other hand, that of patriotic pride is rhetoric that dies hard in our country, a land of harlequins and mischief in which it is easy to elevate those who only do their duty to heroes. Imagine then that Del Vecchio 2.0 doesn’t arouse exaltation in some people and doesn’t cause them to widen their eyes, in his coming as a prodigal scion who is ready to jump on the back of the boot from the stroboscopic lights of nightlife.
The “total” heritage and the inspiration of publishing
Among the first forms that the entrepreneur Del Vecchio took on was that of the diviner with the purchase of Acqua e terme Fiuggi in 2024, then moving on to catering with Vesta and Twiga, to graphene with Esananotech and to real estate with the sale of some buildings in Milan. All movements made through LMDV Capital, a private investment company founded by Del Vecchio in 2022 and with which he has developed a portfolio of investments in different economic sectors over the years.
Del Vecchio, whose assets Forbes Real-Time Billionaires estimates today at 6.3 billion dollars, is after all strong in his 12.5% stake in Delfin, a holding controlled by his family and which upon the death of Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica and father of Leonardo Maria, in 2022, had an estimated value of 30 billion euros.
On this short road to Damascus came the inspiration for publishing. After an unsuccessful attempt in 2025 to acquire la Repubblica, again in December last year through LMDV Media, a subsidiary of LMDV Capital, Del Vecchio took over 30% of il Giornale from Antonio Angelucci’s Tosinvest group. With a similar operation, in May 2026 it also acquired the majority of the Editoriale Nazionale group, which publishes the newspapers Il Giorno, La Nazione, Il Resto del Carlino and QN, of which it now holds 80% (with an investment of around 85 million euros) and of which there was a launch with great fanfare last 5 November.
The curious gluttony – cui prodest? – it doesn’t end here: the entrepreneur also tried to get his hands on Fatto Quotidiano, whose line up until now has never been soft towards him, receiving in response a closure from the majority shareholders, but still managing to purchase 2% of SEIF in the last few days, the company that controls the newspaper directed by Marco Travaglio.
But now let’s talk about investments in cinema
Leonardo Maria’s economic interests in the world of the media do not end only with newspapers. For every self-respecting entrepreneur who focuses at least a little on his own image, he certainly cannot fail to seek the spotlight of cinema.
Del Vecchio’s first investment in the audiovisual sector dates back to July 2024, when through LMDV Capital he entered with a minority share of 13.78% in the share capital of Leone Film Group, a film production and distribution company founded in 1989 by the famous director Sergio Leone and whose majority shareholders are today his children Andrea and Raffaella Leone, president and managing director respectively. Leone Film Group also operates through Lotus Production, acquired by the group in 2014.
In October 2024, again through LMDV Capital, Vice Pictures was founded, a production company of which Del Vecchio is president.
In September 2025, however, a strengthening of the partnership with Leone Film Group arrives. In fact, a joint venture is announced – under the name of LV Legacy Media – following a partial split from the corporate structure which involved the separation of Leone Film’s library of film titles considered “non-current”.
That is to say that the agreement, with a value at signing of 27.7 million euros where the 51% shareholding in the new company belonged to Leone Film and 49% to Vice Pictures (with an investment of 13.6 million), aims to solidify the presence on platforms and on streaming by relaunching the secondary distribution of older films which have exhausted their exploitation cycle at the cinema. To be clear, in the catalog of films distributed in Italy by Leone Film (in agreement with 01 Distribution, a distribution company controlled by Rai) there are works such as “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese.
The relationships between the two companies were further consolidated in March this year. The stake in Leone Film rises further when LMDV Capital purchases other shares from Alchimia, the holding company that controls the interests of the Leone family, bringing Del Vecchio’s presence in the production company to a total amount of 19.45%.
What kind of films does Del Vecchio produce
Del Vecchio’s declared intent at the time of the agreement with Leone Film Group was to “support the strengthening of Italian excellence by promoting the success of Made in Italy on the main international markets”.
Consistent with this principle is therefore that the first film production release by Vice Pictures – again through Leone Film Group – was that of FolleMente by Paolo Genovese, a film released at the beginning of 2025 and with which Del Vecchio won his first nomination for the David di Donatello. A comedy of popular declination – second highest grossing of an Italian opera after Buen Camino, with almost 18 million euros obtained at the box office – directed by the Italian director most exported abroad thanks to the dozens of foreign remakes of Perfect Strangers (which is from 2016) made in the last ten years.
Vice Pictures then repeated it recently with Genovese appearing among the production companies of The Noise of New Things, a work that applies the filmmaker’s usual alchemical formula – large cast and choral story – for a work with a rather indigestible dramatic emphasis.
For Vice Pictures, the prestige shot in the can, however, is certainly the one that will arrive in theaters at the beginning of 2027. And that is Paper Tiger by James Gray, a prominent American author who presented the film, a refined thriller, in competition at the latest Cannes Film Festival and which features international stars such as Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver among its protagonists. In any case, the ambition behind Del Vecchio’s investments in the audiovisual sector is not hidden: the goal, needless to say, is “to win an Oscar”, as he states in an interview with Rolling Stone.
It’s unlikely to happen with Paper Tiger, but some future projects are already mapped out. Vice Pictures will create with Raffaella and Andrea Leone a film based on the origins of Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America entitled What have you done in all these years and which will see Giuseppe G. Stasi and Giancarlo Fontana as directors. And filming also began a few weeks ago on The Lüneburg Variant by Gabriele Salvatores (Oscar-winning director in 1992 with Mediterraneo), produced by Lotus Production in association with Vice Pictures.