BOX OFFICE Czech Republic
You Kiss Like God tops 2009 box office
by Theodore Schwinke
02/02/2010 - You Kiss Like God [trailer] was the number one film in the country last year, earning CZK 90m (€3.4m) on just over 900,000 admissions. Directed by Marie Polednáková (Taming Crocodiles), the film concerns a middle-aged woman's rediscovery of romance. Falcon distributes the film in the Czech Republic.
Just over 350,000 people went to see comedy The Grapes 2, which earned CZK 35.6m (€1.4m). The follow-on to Tomáš Bařina's successful 2008 film Grapes, The Grapes 2 is directed by Vlad Lanne and continues the previous film's story of love, life and wine. Bioscop is the Czech distributor.
Fairy tale Hell With The Princess drew almost 270,000 filmgoers and made CZK 20.6m (€786,000) in sales. Miloslav Šmídmajer's hard-to-resist combination of romance and slapstick is further fueled by the star power of Tereza Voříšková (Grapes, The Grapes 2) and Jiří Mádl (Night Owls, Rafters). The film also is distributed by Bioscop.
According to the Union of Film Distributors, 11 of the top 50 films were Czech productions or co-productions, with combined admissions of 2,363,866 and CZK 222.5m (€8.95) in sales.
Other European titles among the top films included Coco Before Chanel [trailer] (SPI) with 89,000 admissions and Slumdog Millionaire [trailer, film focus] (Bonton Film) with 177,000 admissions.
Overall admissions in the Czech Republic fell 3% to 12.7m last year but rising ticket prices increased sales revenue by 2% to CZK 1.3bn (€49.5m).
