New record for Goodbye Lenin!

28/10/2003

Wolfgang Becker's German comedy Goodbye Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] has become the seventh non-English language film in the last decade to pass the £1m mark at the UK box office, a record partly achieved thanks to the extra £90,000 in P&A (prints and advertising) provided by the UK Film Council’s Distribution and Exhibition Fund (DEF).

“I am delighted that Goodbye Lenin! has been such a big success in the UK”, said Pete Buckingham, Head of the DEF. ”It proves that there is an undoubted appetite for subtitled films in this country”.
Louise Dent, MD of UGC Films which released the German comedy, said “with the Film Council’s support, she had the confidence to give the film a much bigger push without the worry of taking too big a risk in a difficult marketplace”.
In the latest round of support, six specialised and UK films received a total of £565,000 from the UK Film Council’s P&A Fund and UK Film Distribution Programme.
Among those titles were the French films Swimming Pool [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which expanded its release from 28 to 40 prints with an extra £70,000; the animation Belleville Rendez-vous [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which increased its run from 40 to 60 prints with an extra £80,000 from the National lottery, and the Spanish film Krampack, which was able to screen outside London (in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow) thanks to its extra three prints (6 in total).
David Mackenzie’s Young Adam benefited from a £60,000 investment to widen its release to 125 screens instead of 65, and Icon Distribution’s release of Stephen Fry’s Bright Young Things [+see also:
trailer
film profile] received £300,000 in support from the UK Film Distribution Programme.