In just 17 days, the latest film by François Ozon has lapped up $2.3 million at the North American box office, to the delight of its distributor, Focus Features.
Launched Wednesday, July 2 on 13 prints, a comfortable release for a independent arthouse film in the USA, “Swimming Pool” immediately filled theatres in the 6 cities selected by Focus Features: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago and Boston. After 5 days on the screens, results from Sunday evening showed that the film, starring Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier, has achieved an average of almost $29,000 per screen for total takings of $373,000.
During the second week, benefiting from a larger number of prints (65), the film's results went up 140% ($1 million in 7 days), to reach $850,000 during the third week-end, on 165 prints.
Its distributor, headed by David Linde, can thus rest assured that the film will reach its target of $5 million by the end of its run, and hopes are high that it may cross the $7 million threshold, a rare feat for a foreign production in the USA.
The film’s distributor can also pride itself on another recent success, “8 Women,” the French musical by the same director released September 20, 2002, which finished its run with $3 million to its credit.
“Swimming Pool” was produced by Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc (Fidélité Productions), with international sales handled by Celluloid Dreams. The film was presented in Competition at the 2003 Cannes Festival.
