PARIS, June 8 ― A low-budget French comedy about a camp for disabled people has become a “societal phenomenon” in France, trouncing Hollywood blockbusters like Dune 2 and Mad Max spin-off Furiosa. A Little Something Extra has sold 5.8 million tickets as the latest box office numbers were released on Wednesday.
It is the latest example of a film to become a massive hit outside Paris, where snobbier cinephiles tend to ignore broad comedies in favour of arthouse chin-strokers. But five weeks after its release, even Parisians are now flocking to see the light-hearted tale about a bank robber who pretends to be disabled to hide out in a holiday camp. Each week it has easily bested new Hollywood releases, including The Fall Guy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with budgets many times its own €6.
2 million (RM31.5 million). Experts say A Little Something Extra , starring and directed by stand-up comedian Artus (who goes by a single name) has struck a chord at a time when the country is embroiled in a bitter European election campaign.
“We’re in a moment in France where the political atmosphere is highly charged and people are looking for something to bring them back together,” Eric Marti, of box office analysts Comscore, told AFP . Describing it as a “societal phenomenon”, he said the film, which features several actors with disabilities, was inclusive without the increasingly unpopular left-wing rhetoric about representation. “It has a notion of inclusion �.
