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18-09-2013

Romanian Indie Film Sets Opening Record

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    Iulia Rugină's debut feature Love Building set a box office record Iulia Rugină's debut feature Love Building set a box office record

    BUCHAREST: Iulia Rugină's debut feature Love Building set a record for a Romanian independent production, with 10,206 admissions and box office of 35,300 EUR/158,000 RON on its opening weekend, close to double the film’s 20,000 EUR budget

    By comparison Călin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose which was supported by the National Centre for Cinema and won Berlinale's Golden Bear sold 19,729 tickets sold on opening weekend, with 59,407 EUR/ 259,217 RON box office. Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days had 10,851 admissions in the first weekend in 2007 after winning Cannes's Palm d'Or.

    Love Building was produced by the acting school Actoriedefilm.ro and was initially conceived as a graduation short film. The school’s founders Dragoş Bucur, Dorian Boguţă and Alexandru Papadopol encouraged the 31 student cast and crew and the director to expand it into an 85 minute feature film.

    Coproducers Papaya Advertising, Digital Cube, Zbang Film, and partners then came on board.The film was shot in 10 days and won the Special Mention and the Audience Award at B-EST Film Festival. It was acquired by MediaPro Distribution, which primarily distributes its own local films produced by MediaPro Pictures.

    The film opened on 13 September 2013 in 41 theatres across the country, reaching the fourth position in the weekend chart. The other films opening over the weekend were the American action thriller Riddick with 33,733 admissions and Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster with 1,039 admissions.