Love phewthe new film directed by Gilles Lellouche with Adèle Exarchopoulos and François Civil, continues to be a hit at the French box office.
If Gilles Lellouche almost made his acting debut at the same time as his directorial debut at the end of the 90s, he established himself more in front of than behind the camera. In reality, he has only established his reputation as a director since 2018 and The Great Baththe first feature film which he directed alone after Narcoco-directed with Tristan Aurouet.
He returned last October and confirmed his thirst for cinema with Love phewwhich he co-wrote with Audrey Diwan and Ahmed Hamidi (already at work on The Great Bath). This romantic drama set in France in the 1980s is rather unusual: a star-studded cast (Adèle Exarchopoulos and François Civil headlining), a budget of 35 million euros and a number of entries that makes it already one of the biggest successes of the year at the French box office.
OUFISSIME LOVE
Love phew passed the bar 3 million admissions in France, even though it has only been in theaters since October 16. It has therefore already surpassed several American blockbusters and franchise films like Planet of the Apes, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Kung Fu Panda 4 or Joker: Folie à deux which only reached one million entries even though it was released two weeks before Love phew.
At this rate, it should easily exceed Deadpool & Wolverine (3.7 million entries) and surely Dune 2 (4.2 million entries). In which case, it would become at least the fifth biggest success of the year at the French box office, as well as Gilles Lellouche's biggest commercial success as a director. So far, it's still The Great Bath which holds this record with its 4.2 million entries.
Not bad, right? It's French
For now, Love phew is also the third biggest French film of 2024 behind Le Comte de Monte Cristo (9.2 million entries so far) and A little something extra (10.7 million entries), second and first respectively in the French Top 10. But the romance of Gilles Lellouche has a chance of catching up with them: after three weeks of operation, Le Comte de Monte Cristo was also around 3 million admissions, just like Artus' comedy phenomenon.
Everything or almost everything should therefore depend on the number of weeks of operation and theaters, A little something extra having remained on display for 24 weeks with 7 weeks in over 1000 theaters, compared to until now 20 weeks and a peak at 840 theaters for Le Comte de Monte Cristo.
If these two French feature films remain at the top of the French box office until the end of the year (or if one of them is overtaken by Love phew), it will bea first since 2014 and the triumph of What have we done to the Good Lord? et The Aries family. With Supercondriaque et Lucy just behind, there were even four French productions (including a co-production) which rose to the top of the national ranking that year.
However, the release of Vaiana 2 on November 27 could change the situation and restore honors to an American blockbuster. This would not really be surprising given the results of Vice-Versa 2 earlier in the year (8.4 million admissions) and those of the first Vaiana in 2016 (5.6 million entries). Moreover, it is Super Mario who took the crown in 2023, and the remake of Lion King in 2019.
Because a little chauvinism doesn't hurt, so we hope that Love phew still has many beautiful days, even weeks, ahead of him.
