UniFrance Films box office report: Turf struggles to make its mark in Switzerland and Belgium.
Turf is making very little headway in French-speaking European markets. In French-speaking Switzerland (Pathé Films), it attracted a meager 1,800 spectators in its opening week. In Belgium (Alternative), where it was released on 25 prints, it has clocked up 13,000 admissions after two weeks. The director Fabien Onteniente's previous films, Camping (Alternative – 164,000 admissions), Camping 2 (Alternative – 128,000 admissions), and Disco (UIP – 88,000 admissions), have all enjoyed significant success in this market in recent years. The initial figures for Turf are symptomatic of the difficulties faced by French comedies in these first months of 2013.
In Belgium, where audiences generally welcome French films, not one French title released in 2013 has so far topped the 20,000 spectators mark. Max (Belga films) has registered the highest attendance figures to date, currently tallying 15,000 admissions.
Love (Love) took $1.2 million at the box office in USA/English-speaking Canada in the week preceding the Oscars ceremony, bolstered by a release that has now reached 306 prints. It has registered a total of $4.4 million all up in this market, representing close to 600,000 admissions, matching the attendance figures of the director Michael Haneke's previous hit Hidden (Sony), which was released in 2005. It is difficult to predict whether Love's North American career will continue for several more weeks with over 300 prints in circulation. In 2012, The Artist (Weinstein Co.) achieved two thirds of its overall admissions in the USA/English-speaking Canada prior to the Oscars.
Love currently posts a total of close to 2.2 million admissions in international theaters.
Two Days in New York has won over 17,000 spectators in Spain (Alta Films) after nine days on 62 prints. This is a middling performance in a market in which the first installment of the series, 2 Days in Paris (Golem), attracted over 130,000 moviegoers in 2007. Julie Delpy's film has registered its best performance in Poland, pulling in 90,000 admissions. This score must be viewed in perspective with its release of 104 prints initiated by its Polish distributor, Kino Swiat. This film's career is by no means over, with its upcoming release scheduled in Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and Japan.
