The success of Portrait of a Lady on Fire led the distributor Bluelabel Pictures to release Sciamma's earlier films (which had never been shown) in South Korean movie theaters.
Thanks to its 150,000 spectators, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is undeniably one of the biggest French-language hits of recent years in South Korea (Green Narae Media – €881,000 in box office revenues). This feat motivated Bluelabel Pictures to acquire Céline Sciamma's previous productions and to gradually release them in cinemas, in collaboration with Heyday Film. They employed a focused marketing strategy, presenting the titles like select collectibles linked to the films that regularly feed the distributor's social networks.
In May, Tomboy (2011) was offered on wide release on 361 screens (!) and attracted 31,000 moviegoers (€206,000), then in August, Water Lillies (2006) appealed to 11,500 spectators in 89 cinemas (€71,000). This week, finally, it was the turn of Girlhood (2014) to land on the peninsula, with 175 screens: it just missed the 10,000 admissions mark (€64,000), but is nevertheless among the South Korean box office top 10.
Céline Sciamma's films have garnered 200,000 spectators in South Korea in 2020, or approximately 45% of the annual total generated by French films to date, and lines up two of the three most watched French films in the country (Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Tomboy, the third being La Belle Epoque with 66,000 spectators).
--> Karidja Touré's video message for the release of Girlhood in South Korea.
