01/09/2006

Pathe Distribution UK is European auteurs’ best friend: after the record figures for Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
interview: Rebecca O’Brien
film profile] (see focus) (over £3,4m), the best ever box office results for a Loach film in the UK and Ireland, it is now Pedro Almodovar’s turn to hit the jackpot, with Volver [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agustín Almodóvar
interview: Carmen Maura
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
interview: Pénélope Cruz
film profile], (see focus) with almost £600,000 from 87 screens by mid-week.

“The figures for Volver are absolutely superb! It’s the biggest Pedro Almodovar opening ever, about twice the figures of his previous films that we handled”, said an ecstatic Alisdair Nicholson from Pathe Distribution. The film has indeed registered, so far, the best screen average of last weekend’s UK box office with approximately £5,000.

The second best screen average (£4,000) belonged to UIP’s US comedy You, Me and Depree, released on over 400 screens. Considering the extraordinary popularity of Volver, Pathe is contemplating adding 10 extra prints to accommodate the high demand from exhibitors. The Penelope Cruz vehicle ranked number one at London’s three-days opening weekend with £191,660 from 20 screens and number eight nationwide.

Severance [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Pathe’s other new opener, was ranked seventh with around £700,000 from 302 screens by mid-week. “Those figures are fine and we’ll be on target”, stressed Nicholson.

Another Pathe film is opening today: the German low-budget thriller Adrift by Hans Horn, produced by Dan Maag and Philip Schulz and co-produced by Thomas Häberle and Peter Rommel. The film is being launched on 300 UK screens accompanied by a wide outdoor and TV campaign. “It’s very much a concept movie like Snakes On the Plane or Open Water, says Nicholson, “and we’ve targeted the multiplex audience, slightly older than the one for Severance”.

Pathe’s busy release calendar of European films will continue with Stephen Frears’ much anticipated The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile], set to open on September 15 following its presentation tomorrow in Venice in official competition.

The other new European film on UK screens today is the Danish animated film Terkel in Trouble [+see also:
trailer
film profile], released by Eureka Entertainment on 17 screens with a 15 certificate. The top grossing film in Denmark in 2005 (375,822 admissions) was adapted for the UK by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Mark Burton (Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit).