UniFrance Films box office report: It Boy struggles to make its mark in Italy.
It Boy has posted a lackluster debut in Italy (Good Films), where it has been released on 125 prints, registering just under 50,000 admissions. Its low attendance average of 391 spectators per print should result in a downscaling of its release from next week. Two years after the popular success of Second Chance, starring Virginie Efira, which won over 213,000 moviegoers in Italy, a repeat performance by It Boy appears unattainable. The task is all the more difficult considering that romantic comedies are not highly popular with Italian audiences. In the past five years, only a handful of atypical French titles have succeeded in attracting between 100,000 and 150,000 admissions in this market: The Cherry on the Cake (Bolero Films, 137,000 admissions in 2012), Romantics Anonymous (Lucky Red, 126,000 admissions in 2011), and Heartbreaker (Lucky Red, 114,000 admissions in 2011).
On The Other Side of The Tracks remains strong in the Russian market (Exponenta), registering an additional 101,000 admissions in the week after its release, still with a generous 423 prints in circulation. This is an exceptionally good performance, with its high score of 222,000 admissions after its second weekend now allowing it to outshine the performance of The Intouchables (Cascade, 214,000 admissions in 2012). It may well cross the 300,000 admissions mark in upcoming weeks, a feat that is only achieved each year by two or three French-language films in this market. It has also been released this week in Portugal (Eco Films), with nine prints in circulation, posting a somewhat mediocre debut of 1,200 admissions. Against the backdrop of a depressed theatrical market in Portugal at this time, Paulette (Lusomundo) is the only title to have performed well since the beginning of the year, with 52,000 tickets sold to date. On the Other Side of the Tracks is currently credited with 740,000 admissions in international theaters.
After a successful run in Spain (Golem, 223,000 admissions) and the UK (142,000), Italy (Bim) is now the third country in which In the House has registered more than 100,000 spectators, tallying 117,000 admissions after four weeks. In the USA, its distributor Cohen Media is orchestrating a progressive increase in the number of prints released, from three prints in its opening week to 34 in its fourth week, generating $255,000 (34,000 admissions). A number of François Ozon's previous films have been well received by North American audiences, such as Swimming Pool (Focus Features, $10.1 million, for 1.7 million admissions in 2003), 8 Women (Focus Features, $3 million, for 408,000 admissions in 2002), and more recently, Potiche (Music Box, $1.6 million, for 205,000 admissions in 2011). In the House has registered close to 870,000 spectators to date outside France.
