UniFrance Films box office report: The Man Who Laughs thrives in South Korea.
The Man Who Laughs sat in 8th place at the South Korean box office (Company L) on its opening weekend, attracting 37,000 spectators in four days from 157 prints. This is an outstanding debut for a French-language film in this market, with moviegoers clearly charmed by the film's dramatic tone and black humor. These are encouraging initial results for the screen adaptation of the book by Victor Hugo following a somewhat disappointing start to its international career, with 14,000 admissions registered in three markets (Belgium, French-speaking Switzerland, and Greece). It is worth noting that director Jean-Pierre Améris' previous film, Romantics Anonymous, amassed 651,000 admissions abroad.
On The Other Side of The Tracks (Senator) is holding firm in the top 10 at the German box office, currently taking 8th place. It registered a total of 173,000 admissions at the end of its second weekend, bolstered notably by an increase in the number of prints released, from 208 to 231. It has now outscored the performance of Rust & Bone in this market (Wild Bunch, 158,000 admissions), after just ten days boasting the best performance to date by a French film in Germany in 2013. Also in Germany, Fly Me to the Moon (Universum) has come up trumps, with 140,000 admissions registered at the end of its opening week.
Mobius has pulled in 58,000 spectators after ten days in Russia (Paradise). This ranks as the best performance by a French film in this market since the beginning of 2013. The film's results are, however, less than stellar considering its generous release of 194 prints on its opening weekend. After the excellent results in 2012 of The Artist (Volga, 26, 000 admissions) and Players (Luxor, 185,000 admissions), the star status of Jean Dujardin does not appear to be enough to guarantee success for this film in Russia. Mobius currently registers 86,000 admissions in international theaters, including 20,000 in Belgium (Cinéart) and 8,000 in French-speaking Switzerland (Praesens).
