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BOX OFFICE Poland

Clergy amasses over four million admissions and gets international distribution

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- Wojciech Smarzowski’s movie is well on its way to becoming one of the three most popular Polish films since 1989

Clergy amasses over four million admissions and gets international distribution
Clergy by Wojciech Smarzowski

Clergy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojciech Smarzowski
film profile
]
, which revolves around three priests (played by Arkadiusz Jakubik, Jacek Braciak and Robert Więckiewicz), has proven to be an utter sensation in its native Poland. In just four weeks since the film’s initial release, it has racked up over four million admissions, thus landing the fourth spot in the chart of all-time box-office smashes in Poland (since 1989). The top three are Quo Vadis by Jerzy Kawalerowicz (4.3 million), Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania by Andrzej Wajda (6.1 million) and With Fire and Sword by Jerzy Hoffman (7.1 million).

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Clergy is also being screened abroad. The film has been sold to Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, the UK, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the USA and Canada, according to the Polish distributor of the film, Kino Świat, which is also handling the world sales. After its opening weekend in the UK and Ireland, the film grossed over $1.32 million, which is the best result ever achieved by any Polish film released in this territory, according to Kino Świat.  

Clergy is naturally the most popular title in Smarzowski’s filmography so far, but his previous films also piqued audiences’ interest. Hatred [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, about a genocide in the Volhynia region during World War II, racked up 1.49 million admissions and was the third most popular film of 2016 (following hot on the heels of the rom-com Planet Single [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and the action-drama Pitbull: Dangerous Women [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
). Traffic Department [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojtek Smarzowski
film profile
]
was the most popular Polish film of 2013, amassing 1.025 million admissions.

Clergy and its immensely impressive attendance figures have contributed to the constantly growing local box office. As of October 2018, there have been 15 million admissions for Polish films this year – already 1.5 million more than in 2017 (a year in which there were 56 million admissions to all films of all nationalities).

The overall box-office figures are sure to grow even more by the end of this year, with two rom-com premieres coming up (Planet Single 2 by Sam Akina and Love Is Everything [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Michał Kwieciński) as well as the opening of Fugue [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Smoczyńska
film profile
]
by Agnieszka Smoczyńska, which premiered in the Critics’ Week at Cannes.

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