17/11/2010

After 16 days on release, Julia’s Eyes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has garnered just under €4.7m and looks set to exceed To Hell With the Ugly’s €6.9m takings, to become the highest-grossing Spanish film of 2010.

Although it will still be way behind phenomenal hits like Agora [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (€20.4m in 2009) and The Orphanage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (€24.3m in 2007), Guillem Morales’s film has brought a welcome boost to the Spanish film industry, always in need of good news.

After occupying the top spot at the box office for two consecutive weeks, Julia’s Eyes has dropped to second position. Nonetheless, the reaction has been more positive than expected. Indeed, when the film opened the Sitges Festival, both critics and professionals gave it a reception ranging from lukewarm to chilly. This is obviously not an ideal situation for a genre movie.

For several years now, the last four months of the year has been producers’ and distributors’ chosen period for launching the strongest Spanish productions. 2010 is no exception. This year, releases have ranged from modest hits (Lope [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Buried [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Cortés
film profile], The Great Vazquez [+see also:
trailer
interview: Óscar Aibar
film profile]) to resounding flops (Amador [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Agnosia [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Di Di Hollywood [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Happets [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), with a few honourable exceptions on limited print-runs like Black Bread (it was released on 75 screens and has so far amassed €640,000 in four weeks).

As the problem of Spanish cinema’s image at home remains unsolved, many people put the success of films like Julia’s Eyes down to the fact that they look like they were made in Hollywood rather than by local studios.

(Translated from Spanish)