14-09-2022

BOX OFFICE: Most Expensive Film in Czech History Scores First Spot in Domestic Cinemas

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    Medieval by Petr Jakl Medieval by Petr Jakl photo: www.petrjakl.cz

    PRAGUE: The English-language historical drama Medieval from scriptwriter, director and producer Petr Jákl is currently the most attended film in Czech cinemas. The film, which was released by Bioscop in 244 domestic cinemas on 8 September 2022, has become the 4th biggest premiere in the Czech Republic in 2022 with 104,916 admissions and 716,474 EUR / 17,589,442 CZK gross during the first weekend.

    That makes it the 65th most attended premiere during its first weekend in modern history of Czech cinema (from 1990).

    It took 11 years from the first script page to make the film produced by independent film producer Cassian Elwes with J.B.J. Film and Double Tree Entertainment, with an overall budget of around 20.366 m EUR / 0.5 billion CZK. The project about the Bohemian military commander Jan Žižka was conceived as both a domestic and an international film, casting well-known foreign actors such as Michael Caine, Ben Frost, Til Schweiger, Sophie Lowe, Matthew Goode and more.

    In comparison, another Czech film from Jákl, the action crime thriller Kájínek (2010), produced independently by Jákl and distributed by H.C.E., was in the top 20 for 14 weeks and is in the 42nd place in the domestic admissions charts with 119,602 admissions, and in the 59th place in the box office with 632,938 EUR / 15,538,624 CZK gross in the opening weekend. The budget of the film was 2.240 m EUR / 55 m CZK.

    The biographical sports drama Zátopek (2021) directed by David Ondříček, produced by Lucky Man Films s.r.o. and distributed by Falcon, is in the 60th place in the admissions charts with 108,560 admissions, and in the 46th place in the box office with 695,133 EUR / 17,065,515 CZK gross during the first weekend. The film was in the top 20 for 26 weeks. Its budget was 3,747,454 EUR / 96 m CZK.

    The awaited theatrical release of Medieval in 1,311 US cinemas didn't go as expected, with only 807,761 EUR gross. The film became one of the biggest box office flops in US history, scoring the 28th-lowest opening weekend of all times.