Box office: A disappointing start for ‘Heart of slush’

Despite the rather positive reviews, the movie heart mud It got off to a tepid start at the box office last weekend.

Released last Friday on 60 screens across the province, Mariloup Wolfe’s film adaptation of Sarah-Maud Beauchesne’s children’s novel had to finish sixth at the Quebec box office with receipts of $130,828 for its first three days on the label, according to figures. . Compiled by Cinéac.

“I am very disappointed with the numbers,” she confided to register project heart mudChristian Laroche (Confessions, Louis Sir).

One would have expected that the rainy weather at the end of the week would help boost attendance at theaters across the county. However, this is not what happened at all.

“The weekend wasn’t good for cinemas, Christian Laroche laments. Sunday was a terrible day. Is it because people were celebrating Father’s Day? I don’t know. Even the big American films performed less than usual.”

Unsurprisingly, it’s a superhero movie flash, the big-week novelty, which climbed to the top of the county box office thanks to receipts of $536,057. For comparison, an animated film Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse It collected nearly $1 million in its first weekend of operation in Quebec. Last Friday, the new Disney/Pixar production launched, primaryIt also had mixed results in theaters across the county during its first three days in theaters, grossing $463,376.

The challenge of reaching young people

By showing the novel to teenagers on the screen Bird heart Producer Christian Laroche and director Mariloupe Wolfe set themselves the challenge of attracting young audiences to theaters. Time will tell if they’ll be successful, but the film’s early box office results are hardly encouraging.

“It proves to us once again that it is difficult to reach a (young) audience,” Christian Laroche analyzes. “I still know that people love the film and that word of mouth is good. We know that many young people go on vacation in a few days, so we’re crossing our fingers.” For the rest. But for now, I’m still disappointed.”

Despite this mixed start to his film career, heart mud Still scores 4^H Best start for quebec movie in 2023 next cobbler ($186,435 in its first weekend this past March), Katak, the brave beluga ($182,929 in February) and plunger ($181,698 also in February).

heart mud It tells the story of Billie (Lillian Skelly), a 16-year-old teenager who falls in love with a young cyclist prodigy (Joseph Delory) who also falls in love with her older sister (Camille Felton).

Published in 2014, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne’s novel became a huge hit with teens, selling more than 40,000 copies.