Hungary’s Filmmakers See Local Box Office Success With Genre Pics and Romantic Comedies
variety.comChristopher Vourlias It was welcome — perhaps even surprising — news for Hungarian moviegoers to discover that two home-grown productions were sitting at the top of the box office at the start of the year: “Gone Running,” Gábor Herendi’s local remake of the Czech romantic comedy “Women on the Run,” and the ’90s-set musical rom-com “How Could I Live Without You?,” directed by Dénes Orosz.
The two crowd-pleasers, which are both being repped by NFI World Sales at the European Film Market, capped a year that saw some unexpected success stories — such as Bálint Szimler’s arthouse drama “Lesson Learned” drumming up more than 100,000 admissions — alongside signs that Hungarian filmmakers are looking to buck the trends of the recent past.
Just a few years ago, the Magyar industry’s output largely echoed the nationalist turn the country has taken under right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbán, producing splashy historical epics that often underperformed at the box office.
Yet more recently, contemporary stories and genre pics have come to the fore, as evidenced by an NFI sales slate that includes the caper comedy “Tonight We Kill,” and the sports comedy “The Rebound,” featuring “Dallas” star Patrick Duffy.
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