Taken 2 becomes the greatest French success internationally since 2000.
Taken 2 has racked up 34.1 million admissions after only 3 weeks in theaters worldwide (with its 4th weekend in South Korea). It has hence swept aside the international performance of the first episode, Taken (31.2 million admissions) and hence becomes the greatest success, for a French production, recorded since the beginning of 2000 in theaters abroad. As is often the case with this kind of film, the theatrical results quickly drop and distribution is highly concentrated in terms of time span. Nevertheless, the film still holds first place at the box office in many countries, in particular in Israel (Fox - 174,000 admissions for 26 prints), New Zealand (Fox - 122,000 admissions for 126 prints), Peru (Fox - 197,000 admissions for 101 prints), and Singapore (Fox - 367,000 admissions for 47 prints) after three weeks.
With these figures (dated 28 October), we already know that the film will overtake The Fifth Element (35.7 million admissions – released in 1997) and will become the greatest success for a French film ever recorded by uniFrance Films abroad.
In spite of this success, The Intouchables pursues its career and has seen an increase of 145% in audience figures for Brazil (California Filmes) compared to the previous week. This progression is partly due to the 14 supplementary prints put into circulation. It has now reached 842,000 admissions, after eight weeks in theaters. In Japan (Gaga), the number of release prints has continued to increase since the beginning of the film's run 8 weeks ago (from 48 prints in its first weekend to 118 prints now circulating). The film has hence attracted 110,000 additional spectators, a decrease of only 9.5% compared to the previous week, and has now passed the threshold of one million admissions. Figures dated until 21 October in Japan allow us to note that the film will overtake the Japanese performances of Amélie (New Select – 1,039,000 admissions) and The Crimson Rivers (Gaga – 1,050,000 admissions).
Japan thus becomes the eighth territory where The Intouchables has scored more than one million admissions - after Germany (Senator – 8,7 million), Spain (A Contracorriente – 2.5 million), Italy (Medusa – 2.5 million), South Korea (Bloomage – 1.7 million), Switzerland (Frenetic – 1.3 million), the United States (Weinstein Co. – 1.2 million), the Netherlands (Filmfreak – 1.1 million).
Many French films were released in the United States this week, beginning with Holy Motors (Indomina – $9000 representing 1100 admissions for 2 prints). After its European career, which got off to a slightly lacklustre start (with less than 100,000 spectators over 9 territories), the film could appeal to North Americans, who have often proven keen on films selected for the Cannes Film Festival, such as Of Gods and Men (Sony – 500,000 admissions), A Prophet (Sony – 280,000 admissions), and Certified Copy (IFC Films – 170,000 admissions). The Big Picture was also released in American theaters (MPI Media Group – $21,000 representing 2600 admissions for 2 prints), after a modest international career, with 60,000 spectators in 7 territories.
War of the Buttons (Weinstein), has had a 5-print release and tallied 877 admissions, being $7000. This film has also met with a few significative disappointments in Europe, in particular in Spain (Alta Films – 74,000 admissions), where Christophe Barratier's earlier films met with great success – The Chorus (Alta Films), in particular, with 1.5 million admissions. North American audiences rarely embrace French comedies, although Faubourg 36 (Sony) was an exception, and registered its top performance in American theaters with 121,000 admissions.
French films have already generated more than 22 million admissions in the United States since the beginning of 2012. These excellent performances are due, for the major part, to the success of Taken 2 (Fox –11.6 million admissions) and The Artist (Weinstein – 5 million admissions in 2012 and 5.7 million overall).
Matthieu THIBAUDAULT
