16/06/2008

This year is shaping up to be a very good one for Dutch films at the local box office, with distributor Independent Films especially profiting from excellent reviews and sales for their local titles.

In fact, the Amsterdam-based company obtained a market share of over 23% for the first five months of the year, effectively making it the biggest distributor in the country, while some of their biggest money makers have been Dutch films.

Two films by veteran comedy directors laughed all the way to the bank: Moordwijven from Dick Maas (actually released in December 2007) grossed almost €3.3m, while Johan Nijenhuis’ Alibi [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (released February) made almost €1.8m.

The drama Nothing to Lose by Pieter Kuijpers, released in January after a successful launch at the Rotterdam Film Festival (news), earned €850,000 during its theatrical release before its television premiere in May (the film was produced as part of a telefilm series, with some of the titles getting theatrical exposure before their TV premieres).

Two Dutch Independent Films releases are currently still in theatres: the erotic drama Zomerhitte (“Summer Heat”) by actress-turned-director Monique van de Ven, which has made €2.1m so far and is still playing on nine screens, while Dana Nechushtan’s colourful and multicultural youth fantasy Dunya & Desie [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has made €1.3m to date and is still playing on 65 screens. The latter title can next be seen at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Independent Films also noted its surprisingly strong results for the French thriller Taken [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Morel (produced by EuropaCorp), which has raked in over €500,000 since its release on May 1.