the limp eroticism of “Babygirl” compared to the emotion of “I’m still here”

Nicole Kidman’s fantasies are off to the best start in theaters, but risk falling apart like a blast. We are betting more on the good career of the last Walter Salles. And on the humor of well-launched French comedies.

Fort of 109,000 spectators disturbed in 320 cinemas, Babygirl made the best start of the week and took fifth place in the national ranking and first in Paris. If it largely surpasses, at the same stage, the recent Emmanuelle by Audrey Diwan (36,000 admissions), this erotic thriller, carried by Nicole Kidman and the young Harris Dickinson, does not break the house however. In addition, the mixed feedback from the public does not bode well for a long career. It is ultimately much more convincing for I’m still here, which moved 74,000 moviegoers in five days in 180 theaters. If this is only the fourth best score for its Brazilian director Walter Salles (behind Dark Water, On the road et Travel diaries), word of mouth promises a bright future for this family story under the military dictatorship.

Small roar, on the other hand, for Wolf Man, which only scared 68,000 followers despite 345 screens. We are very far from the initial score of Leigh Whannell’s previous horrific production, Invisible Man (295,000 entries in 2020, just before the pandemic). We then find the beginnings of Fabrice Du Welz’s thriller inspired by the Dutroux affair, The Maldoror File (35,000 admissions in 199 theaters), Adam Elliot’s animated masterpiece Memoirs of a snail (26,000 admissions in 148 theaters), the literary adaptation performed by Laurent Lafitte The Fourth Wall (26,000 admissions in 172 theaters), the drama with Cécile de France For love (13,000 admissions in 155 theaters) and the film-loving essay by Arnaud Desplechin, Spectators! (12,000 entries in 93 rooms).

The leading trio remains occupied by Mufasa : The Roi lion, which has just exceeded 4 million tickets sold, ahead of A bear in the Jura, which crosses 900,000 entries and successfully continues its march forward, and Sonic 3, which becomes the best score of the franchise by surpassing the second opus (2.23 million entries). Finally, the triumphs ofA fanfare and of Twenty Gods are still not running out of steam, the first having now exceeded the incredible total of 2.1 million spectators, while the second has just crossed the 800,000 mark.