French films continued to gain strength in the international arena in March, particularly driven by results in Belgium, the United States and Italy.
The most ambitious release of recent weeks is "The Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse" in Italy. The film's distributor, Filmauro, offered it an impressive launch: whereas the original "Crimson Rivers" topped out at 223 prints in circulation in Italy, the second episode kicked off on March 26 with 402 prints. The risk taken by Filmauro has proved well worth taking, with the film raking in €1.97 million at the box office, for 331,000 admissions, in its opening week. It thus jumped to the top spot at the Italian box office, in front of "Non ti muovere" ("Don't Move") by Sergio Castellito and, by an irony of fate, "Gothika" by Mathieu Kassovitz, director of the first "Crimson Rivers."
Released February 18 by Cinéart, "The Crimson Rivers 2" by Olivier Dahan is also making a splash in Belgium. It pulled in around 53,000 spectators on some 20 prints in the country in March. But, of all recent French film releases, it is "Podium" by Yann Moix that has attracted the greatest number of Belgian moviegoers. The film is currently the 3rd most successful French film in Belgium since 1996, after "The Eighth Day" and "Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra." The film currently boasts a running total of €3.5 million, for around 650,000 admissions. For the month of March, Belgium thus ranked as the number 1 country in terms of cumulated box office takings from majority-French films.
The United States ranked second, with a number of films offered extended runs and large-scale releases. This is the case for "The Triplets of Belleville," the animated feature by Sylvain Chomet which is still going strong in U.S. theaters, credited with $6.3 million in ticket sales to date. The same can be said of "Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran" by François Dupeyron. Released December 5, 2003 by Sony Pictures Classics, the film went from a 6-print release in February to 29 prints in circulation early March, and then to 71 prints at the end of the month. It had taken $1.2 million by April 1st. Following its successful performance in Italy (360,000 admissions) and the United States, "Monsieur Ibrahim" is also warming up to a comparable career in Germany. Falcom Media released 71 prints of the film March 25, and its opening week looks encouraging, with 81,000 moviegoers opting for the film.
Spotlight on:
A not-so-unattainable dream
The Franco-Italian co-production "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolluci has now crossed the €10 million mark in box office receipts outside France. The film posts a running total of $2.4 million in the United States, €4.8 million in Italy and €900,000 in Spain.
"Tais-toi" in Canada
Christal Films chose to take on the film by Francis Veber in Canada. The screwball couple played by
Gérard Depardieu and Jean Reno has won over Quebec audiences right from the film's opening week. Released on March 26, "Tais-toi" had taken CAD$144,000 at April 1st.
"Bon Voyage" in America
The latest feature by Jean-Paul Rappeneau was released in the United States on March 12. Sony Pictures Classics embarked on a modest launch for the film with 6 prints released, a good choice since the film was coming close to taking $90,000 by the end of March.
For all further information, contact:
Julien Gaulier
Economic Data Manager
© Unifrance – Le Film Français
