The romantic comedy SOS Love! - The Million Dollar Contract directed by Tamas Sas opened at number five at the box office in Budapest on 15 December 2011 and was riding at number eight by its second week in the cinemas with 20, 805, 095 HUF and 15, 514 admissions (Budapest only). Produced by Budapest based SOS Love Merchandizing (www.soslove.hu ) the Hungarian, Russian, US, UK coproduction* is a sequel to the 2007 Hungarian blockbuster SOS Szerelem! and the first Hungarian feature film shot in 3D. The film was partly shot in the US and stars C.J. Thomason, Billy Zane and Daryl Hannah along with its Hungarian cast. It was also released in Moscow on the same date as its Hungarian release.
Another highly anticipated film is Hungarian animation master Marcell Jankovics's The Tragedy of Man* which premiered 8 December 2011. Almost 30 years in production this is the first release of the project which has seen many of its 15 segments shown at festivals around the world and is expected to have a long life at the art house box office.
The small market share was driven by a dearth of domestically produced commercial films in 2011. The two most successful Hungarian releases so far have been a 50 minute nature film, Vad Magyarország (Wild Hungary) directed by Zoltan Torok and produced by Budapest based Wild Tales Productions (www.wildtales.net), which scored 20 000 admissions mainly due to the schools that took their pupils to the screenings. The top Hungarian feature film was Adrienn Pal, directed by Agnes Kocsis and produced by KHM Films (www.kmhfilm.com ) which had 10 000 admissions. The film won the FNE Visegrad Prix among many other awards.
*Production SOS Love !:SOS Love Merchandizing (Hungary), Eastlake Films (USA), HCC Media Group (www.hccmedia.hu ) Imagicom Productions (UK), S.O.S. Merchandizing (Hungary), SOS Love (Hungary), Salt Studio (Russia).
Distribution: Forum Hungary (www.forumhungary.hu )
*Production The Tragedy of Man: Arteam Produkcios Iroda (Hungary) Focus-Fox Studios (www.focusfox.hu ), Intersound, Kodak Cinema Labs Hungary, Magyar Filmlobortorium, Magyar Rajzfilm Produkcios Iroda Kft (www.magyarrajzfilm.hu ), Pannoniafilm, Eszt Merj
Distribution: Mozinet
{mosimage}BUDAPEST: The Hungarian film industry is pinning its hopes for the 2011 box office on two December releases in a year that saw the market share for domestically produced films at only 3-4% during the first 11 months.
Published in
Hungary
