Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening has grossed an estimated $34,000 from its US debut in four venues as IFC Films president Arianna Bocco urged audiences to seek out the timely abortion drama.
The film played exclusively in New York City’s IFC Center and AMC Lincoln Square and Los Angeles venues The Landmark and AMC The Grove, mixing it up in arthouse and multiplex sites for an $8,500 per-site average. Next week it will expand to more than 100 cities nationwide as well as within the New York City and Los Angeles markets.
Happening star Anamaria Vartolomei won the César Award for most promising actress after the film premiered on the Lido last year. She plays Anne in the 1963-set French drama, a bright student in a provincial university town who becomes increasingly desperate to get an illegal backstreet abortion after she learns she is pregnant.
Happening also played Sundance and opened New Directors/New Films and arrives in the US at a time when the right to abortion is under fire across the country.
A leaked draft ruling from the Supreme Court indicates the highest judicial authority in the land is about to overturn the 1973 landmark ’Roe v Wade’ case that granted federal protection of a woman’s right to choose – leaving the matter in the hands of the states to ban or restict abortion. It has been reported that almost half of US states are planning to do so.
“IFC Films is committed to bringing Happening to screens across America at this pivotal moment in time,” said Bocco. ”We hope audiences seek this film out and that it sparks important conversations about our future. We are proud to continue our long tradition of sharing important, female-driven stories with audiences nationwide.”
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