On a moderate 49-print release, the film by Yann Samuell has attracted over 28,000 spectators on its opening weekend in Germany. Also at this time, “Nathalie…” has gained admissions on its second weekend and “Monsieur Ibrahim” is coming close to the 500,000 admissions mark.
For a debut film with unknown actors across the Rhine, “Love Me If You Dare” was by no means a safe bet. But the work put in by its distributor, Alamode, for whom this film is the most ambitious release to date, has clearly paid off. Released August 12, “Love Me If You Dare,” starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet, has got off to an excellent start, with a running total of 28,120 admissions. With just 49 prints in circulation, the film jumped directly to 10th position in the overall charts, and boasted the 3rd best per-print average (574), behind “I, Robot” and “(T)Raumschiff Surprise,” the latest German comedy by Michael Bully Herbig, director of “Der Schuh des Manitu” (“Manitou’s Shoe”), which has just crossed the 7 million admissions mark. While it is obviously to early to make predictions, especially in a market in which weather conditions can have a dramatic effect on results, we can nonetheless, at the very least, count on a respectable career for this film in Germany.
Another French film off to a fine start in Germany is “Nathalie…” by Anne Fontaine. Offered a similar launch (50 prints) by Concorde on August 5, the film clocked up 43,000 admissions after 10 days on the screens. Bolstered by a stellar cast led by Emmanuelle Béart, Fanny Ardant and Gérard Depardieu, the film took out 11th place in the overall charts on its second weekend, with admissions up 4% compared to its opening weekend. We can thus already observe positive word-of-mouth for this film, which promises it good staying power.
At the same time, “Monsieur Ibrahim et les fleurs du Coran” by François Dupeyron looks set to break the half-million spectators barrier – rarely seen for an auteur film in Germany. Benefiting from excellent marketing including a television campaign, a book that sat at the top of the best-sellers list for several months and topped off by a cast headed by Omar Shariff, who has lost none of his international star-power in Germany, the film is poised to reach 500,000 admissions within 2 or 3 weeks. Terrific news for the film’s distributor, Falcom, a newcomer in this sector founded by Andreas Fallscheer, for whom this is their first French release.
Elizabeth Conter
