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?