After a disapointing first half of the year for Czech films, the coproduction from Tomáš Hoffman and Rudolf Bierman´s Infilm brought a much-needed lift to the domestic box office, despite the good weather conditions that normally keep Czechs far from the cinemas.

Men in Hope now looks like a likely 2011 record breaker. "I think compared to other current films Men in Hope offers a formula that works the best for local audience. They expect a conservative story, a comedy with Czech humour and something touching people could whisper around," said Jan Bradáč, head of distributor Falcon (www.falcon.cz).

Last year Jiří Vejdělej and Tomáš Hoffman had slightly lesser results (91,000 admissions in the first weekend) with their Czech Sex in the City comedy Women in Temptation, reaching a total of 1.2 million admissions. "So it looks like Men in Hope could do even better with a 15% jump already at the start. On the other hand Men in Hope had, for example, twice as many copies as Women in Temptation," Bradáč noted.

Local distributors admit that they still are discovering the new models of distribution dynamics in digitalised cinemas, but say it appears that the whole model is moving faster than in the past. "But we need time and experience to see the future better. But definately this film could stay in cinemas for a while," Bradáč concluded.