18/07/2007

Two rare events are taking place in French cinemas today, with not a single local title but three British films hitting screens. First up is Edgar Wright’s action comedy Hot Fuzz [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, a Working Title production distributed in France by Studio Canal on 148 screens.

Meanwhile, Bac Films is releasing 16 prints of Donald MacIntyre’s documentary A Very British Gangster, winner of the Jury Grand Prize in the World Cinema section at Sundance 2007 and of the recent Cognac Detective Film Festival (see article). Les Acacias is releasing the third UK title – Julien Temple’s Glastonbury, a documentary on the UK’s largest open-air rock festival.

British cinema is most definitely the flavour of the month with the co-production Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Released on 950 screens by Warner, David Yates’s film opened last Wednesday with 720,710 admissions, making it the third best start for a film ever in France – trailing behind Spider-Man 3 (804,345 admissions) and Taxi 2 (801,929). The title has grossed €12.33m after five days on screen, attracting just under 2.1m filmgoers.

All of last week’s Top 10 were US productions except for Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marc-Antoine Robert
interview: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Pa…
film profile] (see Focus) – the fourth most seen title after three weeks in cinemas. Released on 374 prints by Diaphana, the Cannes-winning animated film has garnered 650,000 admissions and grossed €3.8m to date.

Paradoxically, it is also a very favourable season for French releases in the UK, a traditionally difficult market for Gallic productions (see interview with Elizabeth Conter).

Released by Pathé on Friday on 49 screens, Laurent Tirard’s Molière [+see also:
trailer
film profile] finished in eighth position last weekend with a €113,000 gross, ahead of Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Icon, 60 prints), which has taken €1.4m after four weeks, and Guillaume Canet’s Tell No One [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Revolver) on 31 screens, taking a total €1.3m after five weeks.

Lastly, Emanuele Crialese’s French/Italian co-production The Golden Door [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandre Mallet-Guy
interview: Charlotte Gainsbourg
interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Emanuele Crialese
interview: Fabrizio Mosca
film profile] has grossed €232,000 after its third week (Contender Entertainment).

Meanwhile, La Vie en Rose continues its beautiful adventure in the US (see news), with admission figures down only 10% after its fifth week and a further 12 prints released, bringing the total release to 174 screens through its distributor Picturehouse. The title has taken $6.9m at the box office.

(Translated from French)