Box office: "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" crosses the million admissions mark, "The Happy Chosen One" seduces the public, "Emmanuelle" misses its start

04 October 2024 / Alice Leroy

The October movie season is off to a flying start with some great performances and others disappointing. Tim Burton can rejoice: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the sequel to his 1988 classic, has surpassed the symbolic one million spectator mark after only three weeks in theaters. With 257 new admissions this week, the film now has 671 million tickets sold, confirming the triumphant return of Michael Keaton as the prankster demon and Jenna Ortega, a new rising star in fantasy cinema. The horror comedy, between dark humor and nostalgic special effects, is establishing itself as one of the successes of this fall.

In second place, the French comedy The lucky one made a remarkable entrance. The film, starring Camille Lellouche, Michèle Laroque and Gérard Darmon, attracted 206 spectators in its first week of release. Directed by Frank Bellocq, this comedy follows the misfortunes of a young woman hired to pretend to be a man's fiancée during a family dinner. A comedy that relies on tasty dialogue and a charming cast to seduce the audience.

Disappointments for “Emmanuelle” and “Mégalopolis”

On the other hand, the remake of the cult erotic film from the 1970s, Emmanuelle, directed by Audrey Diwan and starring Noémie Merlant, did not convince. With only 14 admissions, the feature film failed to enter the top 000 and ranked 10th at the box office. This disappointing result could be explained by a more dramatic and less sulphurous approach, which failed to revive interest in this myth of French cinema.

Another relative failure: Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola's latest film, is struggling to find its audience. After a mixed reception at the Cannes Film Festival, this futuristic fresco, described as "a Roman epic in a modern America in full decadence", only attracted 136 spectators. Despite a colossal budget of 309 million dollars, part of which was financed by Coppola himself, the film seems doomed to follow the path of his last projects which failed to seduce the general public.

"The Count of Monte Cristo" continues its triumphant race

Among the French successes, the count of Monte Cristo remains unbeatable in the hearts of spectators. The adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' masterpiece by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, with Pierre Niney in the title role, still records 178 new admissions. Now accumulating 660 million spectators, this historical adventure film stands as one of the biggest successes of the year, closely followed by A little something extra.

In fifth position, Seeds of the wild fig tree, awarded at Cannes, has had an excellent start with 109 admissions, which allows it to post the best average attendance of the week.

This week's box office highlights the contrasts in today's cinema: while some franchises are successfully rising from the ashes, other ambitious or daring projects are failing to make their mark in the face of sometimes excessive expectations.

Box office rankings (September 25 – October 1, 2024):

  1. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice : 257 entries (671 in total)
  2. The lucky one : 206 entries
  3. the count of Monte Cristo : 178 entries (660 in total)
  4. Thread : 141 entries (496 in total)
  5. Megalopolis : 136 entries
  6. Seeds of the wild fig tree : 109 entries (086 in total)
  7. No chains, no masters : 107 entries (642 in total)
  8. The Barbarians : 75 entries (306 in total)
  9. emilia perez : 71 entries (881 in total)
  10. Speak No Evil : 71 entries (332 in total)

Next week promises to be just as hotly contested with the arrival of several highly anticipated new releases. It remains to be seen whether Tim Burton will retain the lead or whether a new challenger will come along to shake up the rankings.