15/07/2005

Excellent performances by two French features circulating in the USA. In terms of average receipts per print, La Marche de l’empereur by Luc Jacquet and De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jacques Audiard reached, in fact, first and seventh place in the American box-office, leaving in their wake the summer blockbusters. The animal documentary by Luc Jacquet is becoming a phenomenon on the other side of the Atlantic. Renamed, March of the Penguins, the film kicked-off on the 21st June with a total of 4 prints distributed by Warner Independent. Going into its second week on 20 prints, it managed the best average by screen at 26 000 dollars per print (ahead of War of the Worlds) and accumulated 632 000 dollars in receipts. A result that persuaded its distributor (delighted but surprised) to increase the number of prints in the third week: 64 in total spread over thirty towns. a winning stategy since La Marche de l’empereur pulled in over 1 million dollars last weekend, rising to 13th place in the box-office and keeping the lead in per-print average (15 927 dollars against 15 564 for Fantastic Four).
Having already accumulated b>1,9 million dollars , today the film will rise to150 prints and next Friday reach 500 screens. Driven by excellent word-of-mouth, supported by the film critics and gaining the curiosity of the general press, Luc Jacquet's penguins continue to astound. Produced by Bonne Pioche in partnership with APC and sold internationally by Wild Bunch, the film came out in France on the 26th of January and totalled 1,8 admissions.

For its part, De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté by Jacques Audiard which is distributed by WellSpring seems to be going in the right direction to achieve good results on American tur,f as did the director's previous work, Sur mes lèvres [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (receipts of 1,3 million dollars in 2002). Released on the 4th July with 5 prints, film, interpreted by Romain Duris, produced by Why Not and sold internationally by Celluloïd Dreams rose to18 screens in its second week and has accumulated so far 203 000 dollars in receipts , settling in a respectable 7the place per print average. In comparison, Sur mes lèvres, released on the 7th of July 2002 in the USA reached150 000 dollars of receipts in two weeks. In France, De battre mon cœur s’est arrêté ended up with 963 000 admissions.

(Translated from French)