This week, Neil Calloway looks at how winning in Cannes affects a film’s box office…
Cannes remains the most important film festival in the world, and one of the most important events of any type (think of an annual event that gets the same coverage and you’re searching for a while). The latest festival ends tonight.
There are three parts to Cannes – the market, where bad movies get sold to international distributors so the producers can finance their next straight to DVD Nazi-Vampire-Kung Fu flick, there’s the promotional part, where young, pretty actresses get photographed next to old directors, and there is the competition.
The top prize at the competition, and unquestionably the top prize at any film festival anywhere, is the Palme d’Or. Does winning it help a film, though?
Looking at films who won over the past ten years – even when directed by established directors – it looks like winning the prize makes a significant difference to a film’s box office.
In 2006, Ken Loach’s drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley won the award. The film went to on make more than $20 million at the global box office, more than the next two films Ken Loach would direct combined, and that includes Looking For Eric, a film that got a huge amount of publicity due to it featuring Eric Cantona as himself.
2007’s winner, the Romanian drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days made almost $10 million at the box office, including more than a million in the US. It goes without saying that this is probably the most successful foreign language film about abortion ever released in America, and it is surely down to winning the Palme d’Or that it got any sort of international release.
The Class won in 2008, becoming the first French film in more than twenty years to bag the prize. It may seem odd that a low key school based drama would make more than $28 million, but that’s what The Class did.
Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon won in 2009, going on to make almost $20 million and becoming his most successful film up to that point.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which won in 2010, was the first Thai film to win the award, and went on to make $1 million; not a huge amount, but more than most films from Thailand make around the world.
Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which won in 2011, also did better than his previous film – 2005’s The New World and his next film, 2012’s To The Wonder – combined. It took more than $50 million at the box office, whereas The New World made only $30 and To The Wonder – despite a cast including Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams – made only $2 million. The Tree of Life also made Jessica Chastain a star, which would surely have happened if it didn’t win the Palme d’Or, but it certainly helped.
Michael Haneke won again for Amour in 2012, which made almost $30 million and was again his most successful film up to that point. He also became only the seventh director to win the award twice.
Lesbian love story Blue Is the Warmest Colour won in 2013, and went to on make almost $23 million worldwide. A film with a seven minute long lesbian sex scene is always going to have some sort of audience, but winning the Palme d’Or surely helped it get distribution in countries other than France, and helps raise the profile of a film that might otherwise get missed.
Turkish film Winter Sleep won in 2014, and made more than Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s previous film, the critically acclaimed Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, taking $3.7 million.
Last year’s winner was the searing refugee film Dheepan, which as yet hasn’t made as much as director Jacques Audiard’s previous film, Rust and Bone, but as it’s only just opened in the US that may change.
The Palme d’Or usually helps a film’s box office; it certainly helps a non-English language film to get distribution in the US and the UK, and is more often than not the most successful film of a director’s career. Cannes is still about more than just nice dresses on the Croisette.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
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Originally published May 22, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
