The July 14th weekend saw a wave of French patriotism at movie theaters on the other side of the globe.
In South Korea , Taxi 4 by Gérard Krawczyk, which was released on 99 prints early July, broke into 6th place at the box office after ranking 4th in its opening week. The film has raked in $1 million in two weeks on the screens. By comparison, the most recent French successes in this territory, Paris, je t'aime and Sky Fighters , both released at the beginning of 2007, posted respective scores of $400,000 and $350,000 at this point in their careers.
Another high achiever, Lady Chatterley by Pascale Ferran, released on a modest 5 prints, features at number 10, taking $42,000 on its opening weekend.
This is an exceptional performance by French films, set against a background in which Korean films are losing their hold on the home market.
In Thailand , two films screened on a single-print release, Priceless and The Page Turner , reached 4th and 5th place respectively at the box office in the week of July 12-15. The former film, directed by Pierre Salvadori, pulled in $10,500 after 3 weeks, while the latter film by Denis Dercourt tallied $2,000 in its opening week.
It is worth noting that Denis Dercourt traveled to Bangkok in June as a guest of the French Film Festival, organized by the French Embassy in Thailand and supported by Unifrance. Initial results for the film offer proof that visits by filmmakers and their creative crews, even those less well-known in this territory, provide a significant boost to the promotion of French films in Thailand.
