Opening is below expectations
BERLIN — Bernd Eichinger’s much-hyped pic about West Germany’s Red Army Faction, “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” had a slightly disappointing opening on home turf.
Constantin’s pic attracted an aud of 414,814 from 619 screens over the weekend, and was beaten into second place by fellow opener “Wall-E,” which took 580,000 admission from 685 screens.
“Baader’s” admissions equate to an approximate box office of $3.6 million, against “Wall-E’s” $5.1 million.
The bow failed to match that of Eichinger’s last two major pics, “Downfall” and “Perfume — The Story of a Murderer,” which had admissions of 483,535 and 1 million, respectively, in their opening weekends.
Brilliant autumn weather probably did not help “Baader.”
Expectations had been enormous for the pic, which cost more than Euros 13.5 million ($19.7 million). Its opening was preceded by a week of massive media coverage, which was boosted when the pic was picked as Germany’s entry for the foreign-language film Oscar.
Constantin will take comfort from the fact that “Downfall,” with a similar bow to “Baader,” ended up with a run of 4.6 million admissions.
