The feature fiction debut of director Antoinette Beumer, The Happy Housewife [trailer], made an excellent start last week in the Netherlands, rocketing straight to the top of the box office charts with a weekend take of €387,660 from 119 screens.

The film, based on the eponymous semi-autobiographical bestseller by Heleen van Royen, stars Carice van Houten as the title character, a woman who becomes severely depressed after she has a child with her successful husband (Waldemar Torenstra) at his insistence.
Adding previews to the weekend take, the total gross of the film stands at an impressive €604,596. However, the film did not break the opening record of the previous local film starring Van Houten, A Woman Goes to the Doctor, which opened on 116 screens last November and made €200,000 on its first day alone (weekend takes cover Thursday-Sunday).

Housewife’s nonetheless strong numbers were driven by a media blitz that focused on the female trio behind the film: the novel’s author, the star actress and the director. Both A Woman Goes to the Doctor and The Happy Housewife were produced by Eyeworksand released by Benelux Film Distributors.

Only one other local production, the South America-set medical drama First Mission, figured in the box office top 15, in the last spot. The tale inspired by the work of Doctors without Borders made just over €14,000 from 35 screens this week, for a paltry €400 average (compared to Housewife’s impressive €3,257). The total take of the A-Film release, produced by IDTV Film and Protestant broadcaster NCRV, stands at €213,949 after four weeks.