15/01/2007

Gabriele Muccino’s The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, grossed €3,6m in the opening weekend. The three days were also marked by long admission lines to the 360 cinemas in which the film was distributed by Medusa Film.

The director and actor will take part in tonight’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony, in which Smith is in the running.

Noteworthy new European releases included Lights in the Dusk [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Aki Kaurismäki (distributed by BIM) and Chinese film Little Red Flowers by Zhang Yuan, co-produced by Marco Müller for Downtown Pictures and distributed by Istituto Luce.

In the meantime, positive audience response continues to Lars von Trier’s comedy The Boss of It All [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Distributor Lucky Red increased the number of screens for the film, out since January 5, for its second week of release.

Over the weekend The Boss of It All took in almost €200,000 (the only film to have increased its box office percentage with respect to the previous weekend), once again recording strong screen average results (€3,430, preceded only by Muccino’s film, Rocky Balboa, Casino Royale and Apocalypto).

"I am very happy with these results,” said Andrea Occhipinti, who co-produced and distributed the film in Italy. "Every once in a while, European arthouse cinema – just look at Patrice Leconte’s My Best Friend, which in its sixth week of releases continues to draw audiences – succeeds in having the strength to stand up to Hollywood blockbusters and the shock wave of Christmas comedies".

(Translated from Italian)