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Florent Bugeau - French distributor of 2 Days in Paris

Rezo Films and its “phénomène de l’été”

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Released on July 11, 2007 on 89 prints by Rezo Films, 2 Days in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Mazodier
interview: Julie Delpy
film profile
]
has had an exceptional theatrical run in France, losing very little of its public over the weeks (-9%, then -25 %, -39 %, -9 % and even +11 % in its 6th week), garnering a total 260,000 admissions by the end of September, with the title still showing on 50 screens. Cineuropa meets with distribution manager Florent Bugeau to get the story behind its release.

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"We targeted a trendy public aged between 25 and 35, but we were a bit lost. The film got off to a good start abroad, but we thought that its Parisian aspect and critical view of the French were going to pose more difficulty. Julie Delpy not being popular in France, we focused on the fact that it’s a comedy and its extraordinary performance at Berlin where it sold to more than 70 territories and used foreign press articles with comparisons to Woody Allen. We showed two teasers in cinemas in three weeks and five teasers on the AlloCiné website. That seemed the most influential approach and we received positive feedback very quickly – people laughed.

In the press, we bought advertising for the Sunday before the release on the back page of Journal du Dimanche, then a full-page in the daily newspaper Libération, and Julie Delpy, who featured on the international poster, gave many interviews to all the media. We organised about 10 preview screenings outside of Paris the week before its release.
Selected in June at Cabourg, the film also screened at the Paris Cinéma festival the evening before its release. We advertised again in the press from mid-August to early September under the slogan "le phénomène de l’été" (lit. “summer hit” - in national dailies Libération and Le Monde, then in the weekly publication Les Inrockuptibles and in the Le Journal du Dimanche).

We chose a release date in the middle of the summer in line with the genre (comedy) and tried to keep it on screens as long as possible. We had competition (but not directly in this market) and we were taken aback by the film’s performance. The original amount of 89 prints was cautious because enthusiasm from exhibitors was low. In Paris, the average number of admissions per print has been excellent, while it was the lowest in regions where, despite numerous requests from exhibitors, we preferred to delay the circulation of the film over time."

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