UniFrance Films box office report: Rust & Bone and Love continue their international tour, currently showing in the USA.
Love saw a rise in the number of prints released in the United States and English-speaking Canada this week, from 15 to 36 prints (Sony Classics) taking an additional $562,000 (for around 75,000 admissions) to reach a total of $1.3 million (175,000 admissions). It earned the week's highest average per print at the US box office.
The marketing strategy of platform release employed for this film (in which a film is initially released in a limited number of theaters) had already been adopted by Sony Classics for the previous Palme d'Or winner by Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon, in 2010, allowing it to reach $2.2 million (around 302,000 spectators). The hype generated by Love's nomination in five categories at the Academy Awards could well spur it on to attain close to $5 million by the end of its North American run.
In the Netherlands (Cinéart), Love continues to win over local audiences, with 163,000 admissions registered in ten weeks, ranking as the 4th best performance by a French-language film in this market since the early 2000s. It currently posts a total of just under 1.5 million spectators in international theaters to date.
Rust & Bone has raked in close to $1.6 million in the United States/English-speaking Canada (Sony Classics), registering around 200,000 admissions. It is more than likely to outshine the score of director Jacques Audiard's previous film, A Prophet (Sony Classics), which ended its North American run with $2 million in ticket sales (around 280,000 admissions). Nonetheless, the upscaling of its release from from 79 to 168 prints in its ninth week was not matched by a similar increase in attendance figures in North American theaters, with $343,000 registered, representing an average of around $2,000 per print.
Still showing in Germany (Wild Bunch), Rust & Bone has pulled in 86,000 spectators after three weeks, marking a far more successful performance than the 17,000 admissions achieved by A Prophet in Germany (Sony) in 2010. Released in Russia on a restrained 35 prints (WDSSPR), it attracted 2,800 spectators in its opening weekend, marking a middling performance that was nonetheless in line with its local distributor's expectations. Rust & Bone is now credited with around 900,000 admissions outside France.
Something in the Air's debut in Italy (Officine Ubu) was somewhat lackluster, registering 13,000 admissions from 34 prints in its opening week. These results are, however, more encouraging than those in French-language European markets, with 4,000 admissions registered in Belgium (A Film) after seven weeks and 2,000 admissions in French-speaking Switzerland after five weeks.
A film that has been sold in many markets around the world, Something in the Air could pick up its performance in 2013, with its upcoming release scheduled in Germany (NFP), Spain (Vertigo), Russia (Carmen Film), Brazil (Imovision), as well as the United States (IFC Films) and Australia (Palace Films), two markets in which Summer Hours by the same director achieved its best international performances, tallying 237,000 and 110,000 admissions, respectively.
Matthieu Thibaudault
