04/05/2005

Oliver Hirschbiegel’s recreation of the final days of Adolf Hitler is now the all-time highest grossing German-language film in the UK with over £1.4 m in 5 weeks. The last German record holder in the UK was the comedy Good Bye, Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] with a £1.24m gross. Released on 1rst April by Momentum, Downfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernd Eichinger
interview: Joachim Fest
interview: Oliver Hirschbiegel
film profile] took another £106,276 from 131 sites last weekend over the Bank Holiday for a 12th position at the local chart.
Momentum’s previous foreign language hit was the film French Amelie with a total £5m gross in 2001. More recently, the company enjoyed another great performance for a European film with Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake which grossed over £2.1m during the first term of 2005.
Active in the UK distribution market only since 2000, Momentum’s strategy is to release a dozen titles every year with a mix of commercial films and key art-house titles. Headed by the French Xavier Marchand since January 2004, Momentum Distribution registered its highest box office ever in 2004 largely due to Lost in Translation’s phenomenon success (£10.1m), and it is now one of the top independent distributors in the UK with a 2.2% market share in 2004. Its Canadian parent Alliance Atlantis intends to expand its distribution ventures in other European territories (notably France and Germany) and as part of this strategy, acquired the Spanish distribution outfit Aurum a year ago.

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