29/08/2008

The big surprise this August on French cinema screens is the remarkable resistance shown by Rémi Bezançon’s Le premier jour du reste de ta vie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see article). The title, released on July 23 on 261 screens through StudioCanal, has in five weeks attracted 729,000 filmgoers on a combination of 302 prints from its second week.

Thanks to excellent word-of-mouth, this insightful, amusing and moving family melodrama starring Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Pio Marmai, Belgian actress Déborah François and Québec star Marc-André Grondin has occupied a permanent slot in the top ten since its release and has steadily given away very little ground – 11% in its second week, 19% in its third, 12% in its fourth and 6% in its fifth week while competition has risen significantly. International sales for the Mandarin Cinéma production are being handled by StudioCanal.

Also drawing the crowds at the moment is Gomorrah [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Domenico Procacci
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Matteo Garrone
film profile] by Italian director Matteo Garonne. Distributed by Le Pacte, the 2008 Cannes Grand Prize winner has clocked up 245,000 admissions in its 14 days on screens and is losing only 26% in its second week on a bigger combination of 172 prints.

Meanwhile, three other French features making waves at the box office are Mathieu Kassovitz’s Babylon A.D. [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - in second place of the weekly listings with 408,000 filmgoers in its first week (distributed by StudioCanal on 530 prints), while Anne Fontaine’s La fille de Monaco [+see also:
trailer
film profile] comes in at fourth place with 305,000 admissions over seven days (Warner, 321 prints) and Safy Nebbou’s Mark of an Angel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has attracted 381,000 filmgoers in two weeks (Diaphana, 329 prints).

(Translated from French)