29/01/2003

Roman Polanski’s 2002 Palme d’Or winner The Pianist [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Aki Kaurismäki’s Grand Jury Prize The Man Without a Face [+see also:
trailer
film profile] at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival both opened last weekend in the UK (24 January) and are performing well, thanks to great press reviews and a strong screen presence in London.
In five days The Pianist released by Pathé Distribution has grossed over £258,000 (almost Euros 400,000) from 64 screens, including 10 screens in the West End and 21 in the London area.
According to Alistair Nicholson from the marketing department at Pathé, the film was positioned as an upmarket art-house film and released in 60 plus screens, both art-house cinemas and upmarket multiplexes from UCI, Warner and Cine-World. Although Nicholson refused to tell Cineuropa the total P&A budget, he said that TV advertising was used as well as heavy broadsheet press advertising in the main newspapers and poster advertising in London underground in order to reach a wider audience. The film ranked at No 10 at the UK three-days box office chart.
The Man Without a Past released by ICA Distribution enjoys the highest screen average for an opening film this week (£4,660 – Euros 7,000) and has grossed in just five days over £45,000 (Euros 68,000) from 10 screens: 7 in London, one in Cambridge, one in Dublin and one in Scotland.