{mosimage}"We released Bathory in Hungary in January in 26 prints working directly with multiplex chains Cinema City and Palace Cinemas and we have more than broken even after covering all our costs plus we have learned a lot," said David Vavercak head of marketing at Jakubisko Films.

"We talked to a number of Hungarian distributors but they were not interested in the wide release that we believed Bathory deserved because of the Hungarian content of the film." Bathory was a record breaking box office hit in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia but a wide release in neighbouring countries is rare for a Czech or Slovak production.

Jakubisko Films provided the prints, dubbing into Hungarian and backed the advertising campaign to support the release.

"We have established a good relationship with the multiplex operators. They were open to working with us directly and I believe we could go on to repeat this in other territories," said Vavercak.

Bathory is still running in 4 or 5 prints and Budapest based distrib Hungaricom (http://www.hungaricom.com/) have supported its release in the smaller and art house cinemas throughout Hungary.