French drama ‘The Marching Band’ drowns out ‘Wicked’ at French box office | News

French feature The Marching Band, about an orchestra conductor who discovers he has a brother who plays the trombone in a local band, has out-performed the opening of Universal Pictures’ Wicked at the French box office.

Diaphana’s feelgood drama held at second in its second week on release with 342,700 admissions (an estimated* gross of €2.5m), compared to Wicked’s 290,000 admissions (€2.14m) in its opening week.

Disney’s Moana 2 took the top spot in its second week in cinemas with 1.65 million tickets sold to reach 4 million total, the seventh best-performing film of the year.

Directed by Emmanuel Courcol, and starring Benjamin Lavernhe and Pierre Lottin, The Marching Band was produced by Agat Films – Ex Nihilo’s Marc Bordure and Robert Guédiguin.

As of December 11, it had sold 789,500 tickets for an estimated gross of €5.8m, making it the 11th-biggest French title of the year.

The Marching Band premiered in Cannes’ Premiere section in May. It went on to sell widely for Playtime and won the audience award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Strong word of mouth and good reviews have driven the film’s surprise success. The actors are recognised but not huge stars and the cast also features real marching-band musicians.

It opened on 630 screens in its first week before expanding to nearly 700, while Wicked opened on 600 screens.

While a mighty IP in English-speaking territories, the Broadway musical on which Wicked is based is far less popular in France. Wicked can still woo audiences over the holiday season but will face further competition from upcoming releases Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, Paramount’s Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and another French-made musical, Diastème’s Hear Me Love (Joli Joli).

Universal will next release Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu in French cinemas on December 25.

*Box-office grosses are all estimates based on an average ticket price of €7.40.