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January 09, 2007
FRENCH ELECTION MAKES MONEY
Taking time out from eating unpasteurized cheese and soaking up the Provencial sun, a certain reader who is obsessively keeping tabs on the fate of ELECTION 1 and 2 in France sends in his latest update. And ELECTION looks like it's beating out all comers with opening weekend admissions of 16764 for a per screen average of 2794, the highest for the weekend.
Said reader then whips out some chart action to show that this is a way better turnout than most Asian movies that have played France. Here's their opening weekend numbers for comparison:
OLDBOY - 1164 (Paris) , 535 (all around France)
LADY VENGEANCE - 974 (Paris), 384 (all around France)
THREE TIMES - 1577 (Paris), 758 (all around France)
NOBODY KNOWS - 1700 (Paris), 1080 (all around France)
SHANGHAI DREAMS - 656 (Paris) , 593 (all around France)
BREAKING NEWS - 2102 (Paris) , 497 (all around France)
PTU - 737 (Paris) , 338 (all around France)
THE MISSION - 1028 (Paris) , 391 (all around France)
That's depressing in a lot of different ways. I'm always going to be staggered at just how few people actually buy tickets for Asian movies overseas.
January 9, 2007 at 11:46 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
I'm impressed JT's on the cover of Cahiers Du Cinema though. Maybe that will turn a few heads at Sight and Sound, Film Comment etc. After all, the French persuaded Anglo intellectuals that US crime films + fiction from the '40s were worthy of their attention (film noir, serie noir). Let's hope their To-fetishism can do something similar for the Eastern heir apparent to noir. Not sure that will quickly translate into ticket sales, mind you...
Posted by: Bunta Sugawara | Jan 9, 2007 1:24:27 PM
It's about time Johnnie To gets some recognition in the West. The ELECTION films are just the ones to do it.
Much thanks to this zealous reader. One can only hope when the films make it to America, they are welcomed with similar critical -- and maybe even financial -- success.
Posted by: Vincent | Jan 10, 2007 9:14:58 AM