The Romanian comedy #Selfie69 directed by Cristina Iacob was viewed by almost 87,000 spectators in local cinemas between September 16 and October 2.

The ticket sales totaled close to RON 1.5 million (EUR 330,000), which makes this the best local box-office debut by a Romanian film in the last 26 years, according to a press release from the producers.

#Selfie69 had over 25,000 spectators and RON 423,000 revenues (EUR 95,000) in the first weekend after its launch, double the numbers of its prequel, #Selfie, which was released in 2014. #Selfie had over 100,000 viewers and total revenues of RON 1.15 million (EUR 258,000) that year, being the most successful Romanian movie launched that year.

In 2015, the Romanian movie of the year was Aferim!, which brought Romanian director Radu Jude a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The movie had little over 77,000 spectators in Romanian cinemas and revenues of RON 913,000 (EUR 205,000). The drama De Ce Eu? (Why Me?) by Tudor Giurgiu, also released in 2015, had over 65,500 spectators and EUR 172,000 worth of ticket sales.

This year’s most appreciated movies were Baccalaureate by Cristian Mungiu (awarded for best director at Cannes), Sierranevada by Cristi Puiu (also selected in the official competition at Cannes), and Caini (Dogs), by Bogdan Mirica (won the Transylvania Film Festival Trophy). None of the three movies, however, is even remotely close to the box office revenues of #Selfie69.

Baccalaureate had close to 53,000 spectators and revenues of RON 603,000 (EUR 135,000), Sierranevada drew some 25,000 spectators and EUR 53,000 in revenues, and Caini, which was recently released, has had 21,600 spectators and some EUR 48,000 in revenues.

This comes to show that most Romanian movies that are praised at international movie festivals don’t manage to bring that many spectators into cinemas. Meanwhile, Romanians who go to the movies seem to prefer comedies such as #Selfie69.

However, even a popular movie such as #Selfie69 is far from the performances of the big Hollywood productions in the local box-office. This year’s best-performing premiere in local cinemas was Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which had 128,000 viewers and EUR 620,000 in the first weekend. Suicide Squad had the best overall performance, with over 416,000 spectators and EUR 1.84 million revenues in local cinemas.

#Selfie69 tells the story of three friends in their early 20s who make a bet on Facebook on who will get married first within three days. The movie features many young Romanian actors as well as several famous ones, such as Maia Morgenstern and Razvan Vasilescu.

The movie is produced and distributed by local Zazu Film. Romanian investor Adrian Sarbu appears as the main producer on the film’s final credits. Sarbu, a well-known figure in the local media landscape, owns the Mediafax group and Ziarul Financiar, the biggest financial newspaper in Romania. He also founded PRO TV and was CEO of Central European Media Enterprises (CME), PRO TV’s main shareholder, until 2013.

Aferim! breaks local box-office record for Romanian movie premiere

editor@romania-insider.com