Despite fairly positive reviews, the film slush heart got off to a tepid start at the box office last weekend.
Released last Friday on 60 screens across the province, Mariloup Wolfe’s film adapted from the children’s novel by Sarah-Maude Beauchesne had to settle for sixth place at the Quebec box office with receipts of $130,828 for its first three days at the poster, according to figures compiled by the Cinéac agency.
“I am very disappointed with the figures”, confided to the Log the producer of slush heartChristian Larouche (Confessions, Louis Cyr).
One would have expected that the rainy weekend weather would help boost attendance at theaters across the province. However, this is not at all what happened.
“It was not a good weekend for the cinemas, laments Christian Larouche. Sunday was a terrible day. Is it because people were celebrating Father’s Day? I don’t know. Even big American films did less well than normal.”
Unsurprisingly, it’s the superhero movie Flash, the big novelty of the week, which climbed to the top of the box office in the province thanks to receipts of $536,057. For comparison, the animated film Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse raised close to $1 million in its first weekend of operation in Quebec. Launched last Friday, the new Disney/Pixar production, Elementaryalso achieved mixed results in theaters across the province during its first three days in theaters, grossing $463,376.
The challenge of reaching young people
By bringing to the screen the novel for teenagers slush heart, producer Christian Larouche and director Mariloup Wolfe have set themselves the challenge of attracting young audiences to theatres. Time will tell if they will be successful, but the film’s early box office results are hardly encouraging.
“It proves to us again that it is an audience (young people) that is difficult to reach, analyzes Christian Larouche. Still, I know people love the movie and word of mouth is good. We know that several young people go on vacation in a few days, so we cross our fingers for the rest. But for now, I’m still disappointed.”
Despite this mixed start to his career in cinemas, slush heart still recorded the 4e best start for a Quebec film in 2023 after the cobbler ($186,435 in its first weekend last March), Katak, the brave beluga ($182,829 in February) and The plunger ($181,698 also in February).
slush heart tells the story of Billie (Liliane Skelly), a 16-year-old teenager who falls in love with a young prodigy cyclist (Joseph Delorey) who has also fallen in the eye of her big sister (Camille Felton).
Published in 2014, Sarah-Maude Beauchesne’s novel was a huge hit with teens, selling more than 40,000 copies.