25/11/2022 - The domestic audience clearly shows a big appetite for local productions, with high demand for fairy tales

A Czech fantasy film has managed to attract more theatre-goers into the domestic dark rooms than the latest Marvel blockbuster. In its opening weekend, the live-action fairy tale Princess Lost in Time 2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by Petr Kubík, drew 67,348 paying viewers (grossing €422,103) while Black Panther: Wakanda Forever attracted 57,298 viewers (although it grossed €444,867). The sequel gravitates more towards young-adult fantasy fare than its 2020 predecessor, and opened in 223 local theatres while 128 dark rooms are screening the Marvel blockbuster. Instead of the lead from the first film (read the news), princess Ellena is this time portrayed by Natalia Germani (the leading actress in Nightsiren [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tereza Nvotová
film profile]), and this second film focuses on the character of young alchemist Amelia (Eliška Křenková) from the central trio of protagonists, which also includes prince Jan from Calderon (Marek Lambora).

The first film grossed a total €338,081 and was seen by 58,096 viewers. The domestic audience’s appetite for homemade fantasy certainly increased this year. The creators hyped the sequel as more action-driven and containing 900 visual effects, the highest number in Czech cinema history according to them; those were created by local QQ studio Ostrava with the help of Paranormal studio. Depending on the final box-office outcome, which so far does not look to be disappointing, director Petr Kubík and scriptwriter Lukáš Daniel Pařík are determined to expand on the Princess Lost in Time Cinematic Universe with two more instalments in the budding franchise: a feature-length spin-off following the central villain Murien, and a feature-length film dedicated to the remaining member of the band, prince Jan.

Princess Lost in Time 2 was not the only film to have a good opening weekend. Jan Prušinovský´s latest big screen venture Grand Prix (read the news) had its domestic premiere and landed in the third spot, grossing €298,480 (42 725 admissions from 220 cinemas). The fifth spot was occupied by another Czech fairy tale, Prince Mamma’s Boy, based on the book by the Czech actor Jan Budař who stars in the big screen adaptation but also directed and produced it. Curiously enough, Prince Mamma’s Boy outperformed the most recent DC property in its opening weekend, with 41,535 admissions (€250,006) compared to Black Adam’s 21,924. The year 2022 is the year of the Czech fairy tale, as this year’s record holder remains The Secret of an Old Pistol 2, directed by Radovan Vašák, which garnered 89,791 admissions in its opening weekend, grossing €542,630.

The seventh spot in the weekend's rankings belongs to Tomasz Winski’s provocative debut Borders of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tomasz Wiński
film profile], followed by Miloslav Šmídmajer's rom-com Female Factor in the 8^th position, and Petr Václav’s most ambitious work to date, Il Boemo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile], in the 10^th position.