An update on the release of The Family in the United States.
The latest offering from Luc Besson, The Family (released in the USA as The Family), was released in the USA and English-speaking Canada (Relativity Media) on 3,091 prints and registered close to $19 million (around 2.3 million admissions) at the end of its opening week. This is an encouraging debut at 2nd place at the box office, with the film likely to finish its run with over $40 million to its credit (around 4.9 million admissions). If this is achieved, its attendance figures would come close to matching previous scores in the USA by films from Besson's EuropaCorp, such as Transporter 3 (Lionsgate, released in 2008) and Colombiana (Columbia TriStar, released in 2011), which each pulled in 4.6 million spectators. Before the arrival of Malavita, ten films executive produced by EuropaCorp had generated over 1 million admissions. Among these is, unsurprisingly, Taken (Fox – $145 million, for 20.7 million admissions) and Taken 2 (Fox – $140 million, for 17.5 million admissions), the two most successful French films of all time in the USA, according to uniFrance Films statistics.
In another North American market region, Malavita attracted 31,000 spectators in Quebec in its opening week, with 44 prints released (Les Films Séville). This is a respectable start to the film's career, although it is unlikely to reach 100,000 admissions in this market. Also launched in Russia (Paradise/MGN), it opened in 2nd place at the box office the weekend of its release, clocking up 366,000 admissions from 1,065 prints. This is a fine performance in this market and should result in a final score of around 800,000 spectators. Malavita currently posts a total of 2.7 million admissions in international theaters.
The Gilded Cage has seen its attendance figures fall back by 36% in its seventh week in Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais), taking 56,000 additional admissions, compared to 85,000 last week. Nonetheless, this lower score did not prevent the film from holding firm in 1st place at the box office, or from crossing the 600,000 admissions mark in Portugal. In Germany (Prokino Filmverleih), after two stable weeks at around 20,000 spectators, admissions slumped by 40% to 11,000 this week, despite an increase in the number of prints from 79 to 89. With a total of 73,000 admissions registered in Germany, the film's performance remains more than acceptable. The Gilded Gage is slated for upcoming release in Australia (Palace Films) and Colombia (Cineplex (Colombia)), as well as the biggest Portuguese-language market, Brazil (Mares Filmes).
Matthieu Thibaudault (uniFrance Films)
