11-07-2011

Love.net Tops Bulgarian Box Office

By Pavlina Jeleva

    Bulgaria's first IT romantic drama Love.net (www.themovielove.net) is on its way to become the country's second most successful film. By the end of the 14th week in distribution the film had 199,985 viewers and box office of €683,159.

    It follows the success of Dimitar Mitovsky's Mission London (www.mission-london.com) which had 358,511 spectators and the box office of €1.3 million on 7 July 2010.

    Love.net was roduced by Miramar (www.miramarfilm.com) owned by director/producer Ilian Djevelekov along with Matey Konstantinov and Georgy Dimitrov, and distributed by the biggest market share holder Alexandra films, which has the biggest share of the Bulgarian market. After the success of Javor Gardev's Zift the Bulgarian distributer, which also owns the cinema exhibition group Arena, (www.kinoarena.com), is working with Miramar for the second time. Distribution started on 1 April 2011 with 33 prints. The film is still running in theatres.

    Critics said the audience was seduced by the poignant details of the several eccentric modern love stories facilitated by the internet, as well as a cast of celebrities.

    Love.net also registered two important records: best opening weekend of the year, with over 50% of the weekend overall box office (22,383 viewers, €97,007 box office) and ranking in the top ten of the most successful films distributed in Bulgaria during the last 20 years.