The Batman stay the course, but the novelties Notre Dame is burning and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 come dangerously close.
After two years of absence due to the pandemic, the Printemps du Cinéma made its big comeback in theaters from March 20 to 22. And to the delight of exhibitors, the operation was a resounding success with more than 2.15 million spectators having taken advantage of screenings at just €4.
A great success including The Batman largely profited by attracting 607,350 additional spectators, a drop of only 4% compared to its score the previous week. Thus, after three weeks of release, the film obviously remains at the top of the French box office and exceeds the two million admissions mark by counting 2,408,085 entries. Matt Reeves’ film is off to an exceptional start since it even does better than The Dark Knight at the same stage and its 2,348,000 admissions in three weeks.
We can also note that with his super score for his third week, The Batman becomes the leader of the French box office of the year 2022, in front of Uncharted.
In second place, a new movie is coming : Notre Dame is burning. While we weren’t convinced by the film, like our review of Notre Dame is burning bears witness to this, Jean-Jacques Annaud’s disaster work got off to a good start in theaters, since 388,293 spectators hastened to discover the burning cathedral at the cinema, in this hour-by-hour reconstruction of the tragic accident of April 15, 2019.
In third place, another novelty stands out. The Japanese animated film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 collected 347,583 tickets sold, and posted the best average per print of the films of the week (with an average of 880 spectators per print). However, if it was widely noticed during its preview which had made fans hysterical, the Sunghoo Park film could quickly be forgotten. We remember that the film Demon Slayer: The Infinity Train achieved a similar score when it was released (350,000 admissions), but had just doubled its score before the end of its run (729,000 admissions).
Fire the firefighters! Notre-Dame burns the box office
Uncharted is still resisting and has even taken advantage of the cinema spring with a 24% increase compared to last week. Thus, while he was enthroned in fifth place in the ranking last week, he managed to regain energy by taking fourth place with 248,000 more entries and already a nice total of 2,264,000 tickets sold in five weeks. What confirms the aura of young Tom Holland, decidedly box office star to watch closely when the release of his biopic on Fred Astaire.
Against all odds, the French comedy with Kev Adams and Gérard Depardieu, Retirement home resists and closes this top 5 of the French box office with 241,000 additional admissions. After five weeks of release, Thomas Gilou’s film is very close to exceeding two million admissions. However, if it benefits from 822 copies, almost as many as The Batman (903), the film is on the downward slope as it posts the sad average of 293 admissions per print (the second lowest score of the top 10 of the week).
Nursing home, 5 week longevity
Just behind, Goliath drops four spots for its second week in theaters, but lost only 11% of its admissions, no doubt thanks to the cinema spring and good word-of-mouth, the film posting a fine average of 4 stars out of 5 on the audience ratings of Allociné (and critics rather positive press). On his side, Maigret loses seven places and is in fourteenth position at the box office despite its 701 copies. And that shouldn’t work out for the film worn by Gérard Depardieu given its low average of 71 admissions per print (the second lowest of the week, all films combined).
Same thing for Death on the Nile which flows a little more each week. Kenneth Branagh’s film was amputated by 199 copies and only made 33,554 admissions this week, less thanEncanto – the Fantastic Madrigal Family, which after seventeen weeks has managed to bring together 39,734 new spectators (well helped by the spring in cinema and the return of toddlers to theatres). And unfortunately for the Briton, his other film currently showing, Belfastachieves a very low score of 47,000 admissions for its third week (despite its status as a serious contender for the Oscars).
Surely dead on the Nile
After a stint on Netflix with 6 Underground in 2019, the new film by Michael Bay, Ambulance hit theaters this week and could therefore well upset the next box office. His last film at the cinema, Transformers 5: The Last Knighthad gathered 1,428,793 spectators, a barely satisfactory score that Michael Bay no doubt hopes to exceed.
In a completely different style, The Time of Secrets, the new film by Christophe Barratier adapted from the novel by Marcel Pagnol, could quite achieve a nice scoreperhaps even at the height of the diptych of Yves Robert which had been a phenomenon in 1990. Note that The chorists, Christophe Barratier’s first feature film had 8,669,186 admissions in France. Bay vs Barratier, who will be in the top 5? The bets are open.