Box Office For Those Who Can Read...
Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 5:53PM by Nathaniel R
Since this weekend's box office results are just too dull to report on (April has been seriously lacking in new mainstream movies of worth) let's swerve over to the arthouse for this weekend's box office chart. And this gives us an excuse to talk about the the underdiscussed auteur François Ozon, too. D'accord? Which foreign language films have been most popular with US moviegoers in the first third of the year?
TOP FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS RELEASED IN 2017
(numbers as of April 30th, some of these are still in theaters)
01 Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (India) $10.1
A sequel to the 2015 epic about ancient India.
02 Your Name (Japan) $4.2
Many people thought this should have been nominated for the animation feature Oscar last year -- from my understanding it's being shown in both English dub and in subtitled versions though I'm not 100% confident about this understanding.
⇱ 03 Raees (India) $3.2
Shah Rukh Khan continues to be a very reliable Bollywood draw. His latest is about a bootlegger in Guajarat...
04 Kedi (Turkey) $2.5
This surprise sleeper doc hit is about the streetcats of Istanbul. You can preorder the digital or Blu-Ray already but you won't get it until November so best to see it in theaters if you can find it.
05 The Salesman (Iran) $2.4 *OSCAR WINNER*
Asghar Farhadi's last Oscar winner did triple this number but $2.4 million for a super serious Iranian drama is remarkable. Farhadi is now a marketable name in sophisticated movie cities. His last three films have all passed the million dollar mark in US cinemas... something which you know is quite hard for non-Bollywood foreign films to do. The Salesman hits Blu-Ray and DVD this Tuesday, May 2nd. Get into it. It's good.
06 Un Padre No Tan Padre (Mexico) $2.1
A comedy about a father who is expelled from his retirement home and goes to live with his son.
07 Everybody Loves Somebody (Mexico) $1.9
This romantic comedy stars Karla Souza from How to Get Away With Murder who asks a friend to pose as her boyfriend at a wedding. How many movies have had the fake wedding date plot now!?!
08 Badrinath Ki Dulhania (India) $1.9
A romantic comedy. Alas, I missed my window with this one (if only someone would warn me about the ones that have big dance numbers!) and now it's only playing in the 'burbs.
09 Jolly Lib 2 (India) $1.6
From a comedy series about a clumsy lawyer played by Akshay Kumar
10 The Red Turtle (Japan/France) $909k *OSCAR NOMINEE*
This gorgeous animated film doesn't need subtitles as it actually has no dialogue. It hits Blu-Ray and DVD this week so do yourself a favor and watch it with all the lights off and just soak up all the beauty in every frame.
11 Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (China) $880k
Another action sequel
12 Frantz (France) $798k
The prolific François Ozon has been getting US distribution pretty regularly his whole career (we did a "Posterized" on him a few years back) but this is his largest success in some time despite having no A list leading lady like his most famous pictures. All four of the biggest hits of his career have been headlined by either Charlotte Rampling or Catherine Deneuve.
Ozon's most successful films in the States are, in order:
- Swimming Pool (2003) $10 million in US + $12 million abroad
- ⇱ 8 Women (2002) $3 million in US + $39 million abroad
- Potiche (2011) $1.6 million in US + $21.5 million abroad
- Under the Sand (2001) $1.4 million in US + $5 million abroad
- Frantz (2017) $.8 million in US (global numbers not available yet)
It was bad luck that Frantz had to go up against big provocative hit Elle last season for France's Oscar submission because it's easy to picture this film making it to the nominee list in that category. Elle, of course, did not which is the Academy's loss. Ozon's only submission to compete at the Oscars was 8 Women but the Academy unwisely ignored that delightful all star hit musical.
P.S. If you're curious about how foreign films do overall in the states, check out this updated list of the top 200 titles from 2016 Only a couple of them are still in theaters so the list is almost preserved in stone now. It's fairly indicative of how each year goes in terms of box office for subtitled features along with highlighting the strange factor that the most discussed titles are almost never the very biggest hits (Elle, The Handmaiden, Toni Erdmann and Julieta all made the top 25 foreign grossers but they were mostly in the back half of that group even if they were infinitely more discussed than the top 10 films).
But back to the here and now. What did you see this weekend?
Reader Comments (22)
Now I'm an official "Katharine Hepburn 12 Oscar Nominated Performances" completist
the final two movies I had yet to see (and saw this week) were:
Summertime - the better movie; & The Rainmaker - the better performance
Now that I've seen them all, I'd give her 4 Oscars for:
*The Lion in Winter
*Long Day's Journey Into Night (probably my favorite Kate Hepburn performance)
*The Philadelphia Story
*Alice Adams
Other favorites:
The African Queen
Suddenly, Last Summer
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Least favorite:
Woman of the Year
I have to strongly digress. "Boring"?? The Fate of the Furious leading for a third time without competition is indeed boring but the next two places definitely are a story.
How To Be a Latin Lover, a Mexican-American film became the studio's most successful opening. It had a pretty strong per theatre average and came in second with just 1,100 screens. Then Baahubali 2's release grossed a crazy $23,000 pta and cracked third place with with less than 500 theatres. It tripled the original's opening and with already $10 mil in the bank has already cracked the top 30 releases of film not in English.
Both releases over-performed, came ahead of the expected $15 mil for The Circle and should be a bigger story. A rather fascinating demonstration of the clearly changing demographics in the country and how they will affect the box office in the future.
Your Name is being shown in subbed and dubbed formats, that is correct. It's because Funimation is the distributor. Their main business is anime television series and it's bad business at this point not to offer subbed and dubbed releases at the same time if at all possible. It's something I haven't seen with films before, but I like it. I missed the screenings (one week only) at my local multiplex but they had matinee and evening screenings of the sub and the dub.
Now, I can't confirm that every theater airing the film offers both options. I'm pretty sure a just too far away to make it worth it art house around here only has the sub and another just has the dub.
I saw Tommy for the first time. Ann-Margret is good, but I will never in my life be high enough to appreciate this movie.
I also binged on Dear White People, the series. I really liked the movie, and the series is even better. I'm hoping for a Ssason 2!
I am finishing 13 Reasons Why, which I am finding simultaneously sad and engrossing. It does a good job at showing how any teenager gradually ends up at a suicidal stage. It's dark and terrifying. The parents or schools who are freaked out about the show might want to try connecting with their kids. Mine were mentally and emotionally gone, and that dynamic can be extremely difficult for a troubled teenager to sustain over a long period. The actors all all very good.
I saw "The Lost City of Z" which is good but I kept imagining what David Lean would have done with the material. Fawcett seems to have gotten the politically correct treatment- yes I'm sure he was visionary man when it came to Amazonia but he seems a bit too 21st century in his thinking.
Yavor: I'm not a big Katharine Hepburn fan. When you say that you'd give her 4 Oscars, did you consider the performances she was up against in every one of those years?
I did, and in my books she'd only have one Oscar for The Lion in Winter in 1968, and that would be only if she still tied with Barbra Streisand. Now, maybe, only maybe, for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).
It's good to know that Ozon does make some money in the U.S. I haven't seen any of his films in the theaters as they don't really come to Atlanta.
I saw PERSONAL SHOPPER which I loved, though the audience around me seemed kind of perplexed. I needed an art-house palate cleanser before I submit to seeing GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2.
And ASSASSIN'S CREED at home. For Fassy and Cotillard, of course. Look it was pretty dumb, but that extended chase sequence in the middle was very exciting and some of the other set pieces were good too.
I started watching The Handmaid's Tale this weekend. Within the first few minutes, I was already super hooked. I love everything about it. The performances from all the actresses, even Yvonne Strahovski as the Commander's barron wife, are all aces. I love the cinematography, the costume design. Just. Amazing!
Also, Baahubali 2 and How To Be A Latin Lover overperforming is a huge deal. One reason because they played in fewer theaters than The Circle and they beat Emma Watson and of all people, Tom Hanks. Both films performing the way they are shows that people aren't going to movies for star power these days. Star power does exist. Leo and Denzel still have plenty of box office pull. But in today's day and age, it isn't everything.
Plus, the fact that both diverse films cracked the top 3 while a film with a multi-ethnic cast holds onto the number one spot is an added bonus. As audiences become more progressive, so should Hollywood studios.
I saw Sleight this weekend. Plays like a festival title. The multiplex crowd appreciated what small pleasures it had to offer.
Saw Your Name (in Japanese with English subtitles) and liked it. A lot. Movies of a certain genre (e.g. horror, anime, thriller) tend to be recursive and do not give filmviewers something new, but Your Name offered emotional heft in (re)examining overused tropes such as identity and destiny and make it work. Despite that I still think Your Name can be an acquired taste to some.
I thought Frantz was an amazingly helmed, crafted and conceptualised film. The way the colors are used to score moods and moments rather than hammer me with cinematic road maps as though I'll be lost without them. The film itself is a joy -- complex yet simple the way everyday life operates. It hinted at things and did not quite go there to fully explore them. Much like ephemeral objects and moments, plot and story never fully explain or give the full picture. Paula Beer is solid as she navigates the French/German sceneries. While I have a soft spot for Ozon's Under the Sand, his latest film is very near the top of my favorites.
This weekend, I watched Tony Richardson's 1962 kitchen sink classic The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner with the luminous Tom Courtenay in his film debut as Colin Smith. His voice-over still haunts me a few days after I watched the film. Must be the almost-mournful way he speaks, or maybe because the writing itself has this power to capture the elusive in a few words -- I am still not sure, but what I am sure I love are the b&w lifeworld of rural England, and the performances of Courtenay and Michael Redgrave (Tony Richardson would marry Vanessa Redgrave shortly after the film ended). The filming itself is like a plaintive saxophone crying alone in the early hours of the morning.
Can't wait for Agnes Varda's latest doc.
N--LOVE your blog entry headline.
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks--Oprah is brilliant, expect an Emmy nod, but book is much better
Dear White People--enjoy more than the movie, great cast
Girlboss--meh
Line of Duty S4--I wouldn't be opposed to Thandie Newton turning up in everything...
I watched The First Monday in May. I nearly died from cringe during a couple of moments (the Justin Bieber/Chariman Mao scene in particular), but it was a good doco otherwise.
Kedi. What a wonderful, fascinating cat's eye view of seven of the one million feral cats in Istanbul and the symbiotic relationship they have with their human neighbors (and both benefiting because of it). This is one film I thoroughly wish for a sequel.
Steve_Man - There's no denying that the per screen average for Baahubali is impressive, but it does come with an asterisk. The price of admission for the flick is decidedly higher than most other movies with IMAX showings going for $40 opening night and $33 opening week. "Regular" non-premium shows vary by day and language in which you see it but were topping out at $30. Many films released in the Telugu and Tamil languages take on this form of "demand" pricing structures which inevitably skew their pta's. Most Hindi-language films released in the US (including all of the others on Nathaniel's list above, I think) don't carry this type of pricing structure.
Just an FYI. Doesn't negate the film's success, but just trying to give everyone a bit more info.
Standing room only at a two play day of Angels in America at the Royal National Theatre in London. It was amazing.
@Marcos
Early Hepburn (that's pre-Spencer Tracy to me) is FAR TOO ICONIC not to be rewarded with an Oscar. Considering they only nominated Early Hepburn three times (Alice Adams, The Philadelphia Story, Morning Glory), in the worst case scenario I'd give her at least one Oscar for that period, and I'm not a really digging Morning Glory.
Moving on to 1962, I've watched: The Miracle Worker, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and, as I mentioned earlier, that's probably THE Kate Hepburn performance for the ages. I keep returning to it. The character is fascinating, the execution is wonderful, and I really like the movie as well, I'd call it masterpiece, it's long and difficult, no doubt about it, but it's a masterful work.
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a breathtaking Bette Davis performance but I've never really felt like re-watching that movie/performance, also it's not really as layered as Hepburn's Mary Tyrone.
I love Anne Bancroft, and her best work is in The Pumpkin Eater, that's her Oscar in my books. The Miracle Worker, the movie, is wonderful. The character, just not that interesting/layered/somewhat lacking in depth.
1968: The Lion in Winter is a must win. Similarly to Long Day's Journey Into Night, when you give Katharine Hepburn great words the magic really happens.
I'm also annoyed that the accent and the hairdo are almost always the same but she was smart and didn't work much compared to Davis (too many credits, pointless, really, and I'm glad they mention that in Feud), Crawford, and many others. She's got the smartest career of them all.
Finally saw the pilot of The Get Down - it's...interesting. it throws so much at you, covers so much ground and stories and locations, that it was a bit overwhelming. I guess I'm intrigued enough to continue watching but there's just so much damn TV now that I'm not sure. With Sense8 and Kimmy Schmidt and Dear White People having started/starting soon...
A Quiet Passion
I keep enjoying Cynthia Nixon more and more.
I watched James White because of this blog and because of all the praise for her performance and she nails it once again playing Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion.
Tried to go see COLOSSAL this past weekend but it was so packed the only seats left were the front row so I ended up getting a refund. Will try again soon.
Just saw THE PROMISE today which worked well as an epic-type of film. Did not know the history of the Armenian genocide, and after seeing this, I'm inclined to learn more about it.
Nathaniel, when will you see Your Name.?