MovieChat Forums > Maurice Richard (2007) Discussion > Did this movie do well at the box office...

Did this movie do well at the box office?

posted 18 years ago by guilhem_r
26 replies | jump to latest

I see that it racked up USD 1,8M in Quebec?
Is that good?
How much did it gross nationally?
Probably not 5 times that since it's a French Canadian movie.

It seems quite low.
If you take a big hit like Spiderman 2 in the US (300M inhabitants), it grossed USD 375M.

If you take a big hit in a mid-size country like France (60M inhabitants), like Asterix & Cleopatra, it grossed USD 75M.
So it seems more or less equivalent if you take population into account.

However, these are among the stronger markets for theatrical exploitation.
I'm not sure about Canada. (In Germany for instance, movies don't make that much money in theaters).

Still this film's numbers look many, many times lower than the above examples, even considering the narrower Québec market.
I guess given the budget, expectations for The Rocket were at least quite a bit higher.

So is it that the theatrical market is somewhat weaker in Canada (or parts of Canada), or did this movie just have mediocre results?

Maybe, with the influx of population from various origins in modern Quebec, a biopic about old time hockey is not able to cater to the maximum audience.

Thanks for your answers.

[–] Sens_Fan 18 years ago

It did very well in Quebec. As for the rest of Canada, forget it. If anyone believes that people outside of Quebec give a dang about francophones they are lying. And this film is about how a French Canadian was able to be a superstar even when the dice where stacked against him. You think English Canada cares? No way. And I have a pretty good idea of what people think about french canadians because I don't live in Quebec. It's really interesting when nobody knows you're french and the comments start flying around the room. Like it's our fault that anglophones can't get a job for the government.

And it's really too bad because this is an awesome movie. I couldn't wait to go see it at the theatre only to realize that it was already pulled out after the first week here in Ontario. I should have gone the first week but the newest Senators fan was just born in my family! :) But the day it was released on DVD you can bet I was there and it met my expectations!!! Maurice Richard made me proud (once again) to be a French Canadian.

Have a nice day!

Dre

P.S. If I offended anyone relax, I wasn't obviously talking about you... or was I?

[–] guilhem_r 18 years ago

Oh I see, the numbers on IMDb are probably not the final gross. My bad.
I'm happy that it did well then.

[–] sarah_91 18 years ago

I don't live in Quebec. This is the greatest movie ever.

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[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] l-grandy 17 years ago

I don't live in Quebec either and I loved the movie, and I loved that they kept it French. I'm thrilled it won the Genie awards it did. I think everyone involved did a great job on this film, they should be proud of it.

[–] shawa_sucks 17 years ago

now now, Not all of Canada completely forgot about this movie, to be honest with you the advertising and promotion that it got was so minimal, perhaps due to a limited budget, that not too many people got to hear of the movie upon it's release in the theaters. I never saw a trailer in theaters and I only came across a few ads in the paper. To say that this movie was ignored because Richard was a francophone has nothing to do with it, or at the very least a minimal percentage.

[–] vallyofthedamned 17 years ago

Agreed- I recall seeing a trailer ONCE.

And the Rocket is what I, an English-Canadian who dislikes Hockey (the horror!) would consider a national hero as well as a Quebec hero. He's a pretty damn inspirational guy.
___
fanfiction.net/s/2815492 <---Battle Royale fanfic! Please read & review!

[–] cbudlong1 17 years ago

You're right about the discrimination. Nobody knows i'm french either and sometimes i hear comments but not often anymore. You sound a little bitter though. Sounds like you'd have some interesting stories to tell.
At least in some areas of Ontario people speak french. I'm on the prairies and with very few exceptions it's either english or german.

The movie was wonderful and I enjoyed being the only one in the theatre who didn't need subtitles. My dad grew up in Montreal and was a Richard fan. I grew up hearing hockey stories about the Rocket. Good memories.

oh by the way.......
you root for the senators????!!!!!!
ohdearohdearohdear.

[–] bambanzeboy 17 years ago

IT FLOPPED IN QUEBEC, THE BUDGET WAS 4 MILL, and it did 3. SO its a flop.

[–] frankenbenz 15 years ago

theatrical distribution is the problem. in canada the only non-US first run theaters are those that are in quebec. the quebec film industry has a self-supportive infrastructure, whereas the rest of canada sold its soul to the devil around the time of WW2. it had something to do with a no-compete clause signed between hollywood's major studios and the canadian government...and this deal subsequently gave birth to the NFB. this is why canadians have a long history of making great docs, animated films and experimental films, but a small and struggling feature film industry. as a result, canuck films are poorly funded, poorly distributed and rarely seen by canadians who are guilty of flocking to american owned theaters to watch american made films.

note: i'm a little fuzzy on my facts and the timeline, but i think i'm somewhere in the ballpark.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Credo_Quia_Absurdum 17 years ago

Too bad it's almost totally ignored. It deserved much more attention. Only 544 votes to this date. Perhaps because of the lack of votes, this movie isn't included in the Best Sport Movie section of imdb ( http://www.imdb.com/chart/sport ). If it would, Maurice Richard would be on the top along with Raging Bull and Million Dollar Baby!

[–] Roger-Lemay 15 years ago

It's now in 12th place in the Best Sport Movie section of imdb ( http://www.imdb.com/chart/sport ), which is great!

[–] p_gemme 17 years ago

To be honest, even tough it was a good movie (far from perfect, maybe not even great) it didn't do that well at the box-office. At the same time, there was another hockey movie, a stupid one in my opinion (Les Boys 4) which did much better even though IMDB doesn't tell everything, only the opening weekend. Some movie critics believe it didn't help Maurice Richard to score a lot at the BO... too bad, since it was a much better movie.

[–] sweiland75 17 years ago

Canadian movies never do well at the domestic box office because everyone would rather go see an American movie.

Namaste, and good luck.

[–] hockeyfan_11 17 years ago

i thought it was a great movie

[–] paweli 17 years ago

Oh my god! This movie is going to be released on DVD in Finland! Am I happy little European now or what? I mean, we seldom have any localised DVD releases here, not anything worth mentioning anyway, but this... just great! I think there's still some sane people left who decide this kind of things :).

Expect me when you see me.

[–] elvis-pretzel 17 years ago

most movies gross between 10 million to 30 million + at the box office in one weekend. But since this movie was an only Canadian release, and was mostly french and very low budget (but not apparent), it probably didnt gross as much as the price i said earlier.

[–] glennstg 17 years ago

It wasn't because it was a French Canadian movie that it didn't do well at the box office. English Canadian films don't do any better. :D

But this movie rocked. Any serious hockey fan should give this a look no matter where they live.

[–] Anatolius 17 years ago

I am not French-- actually Ukrainian Canadian, and I was born decades after the Rocket retired, but he was revered by my father(an immigrant). At home we had books, vidoes, even signed pucks with the Rocket's name. I grew up with an appreciation of this great player, who deserves to be a top 5 all time. The movie was good, but the memory of the Rocket is better. Long live his legacy !If Jesus played hockey, 100% he would have been the spitting image of the Rocket.

PS- Agree with those that say there is racism against French. I am an English speaker and hear jokes all the time about the French. Truth be told, us in English Canada could learn a thing or two about tolerance and class from the French. They learned to speak and live in an English speaking world, while we never bothered to learn the "other" official language. It's a farce and we should hang our heads low.

[–] dr-face 17 years ago

I do live in Quebec and it did really well at the paramount downtown montreal
it was a really good movie GO Canadians!

[–] jammer_time 17 years ago

I live in Ontario, don't speak French and I thought this movie was great. I also like the fact that they kept it in French.

[–] ftremblay 16 years ago

I don't think it did that bad. Most of its gross comes from Quebec, and there are only 6 millions inhabitants in Quebec you know. And we shouldn't dramatize, there is some racism against Frenchies in Canada, but most of it comes from people who never set a foot on Quebec's ground. I have many English-speaking friends, and most of them love the diversity Montreal has to offer!

[–] bambanzeboy 16 years ago

HAHAHA ONLY IN MONTREAL, LETS ADMIT IT FRENCH QUEBECS ARE RACIST, ONLY IN MONTREAL THEY ARE OPENED AND ITS BECAUSE ONLY FOREIGNS LIVE IN THAT AREA AND THATS WHY IT IS ONE OF THE GREATEST CITY IN CANADA

[–] Dmagic5000 15 years ago

I live in British Columbia and this is probably the best Canadian movie i have ever seen.

"There's Only One Who Can Stop Us; Or Imagine If He Joined Us."

[–] SevenKal-ElGuiry 7 years ago

i saw this only on tv on the cbc.. pretty much the ONLY time i watch the cbc is for hockey and their movies... i loved this movie.. and the Don Cherry movie

I KNOW 2 things that are clear. I'm a great sinner,Christ is a great Savior.