'Wolfgang' makes history: it's already the best Catalan-language film premiere of the 21st century.

BarcelonaBreaking historic box office records is becoming a habit for Catalan-language cinema. The latest milestone has been achieved by Javier Ruiz Caldera's family comedy Wolfgang, which in just two days of theater release has already grossed around €430,000 and is now number 1 at the box office. According to expert projections, the film will have grossed around €650,000 by the end of the weekend.

Until now, the best premiere of a Catalan film in the 21st century was that of Bruc, the legend, which in 2010 earned around €450,000 in its first weekend in theaters and ranked sixth at the Spanish box office. In 2022, Alcarràs grossed 410,000 euros during its first weekend, occupying the second position at the box office; and last year, The 47 made 240,000 euros on its debut, which was then enough to turn it into the second best Catalan premiere of the decade. Compare the premiere of Wolfgang With the success of Catalan-language films from the 20th century, it is more difficult because there is no reliable data, because inflation distorts the figures and because film consumption has changed a lot in the last 25 years.

In its first two days of exhibition, Wolfgang Children's and family films are performing at the Spanish box office as usual, with a very large percentage increase (more than 160%) in Saturday's box office takings compared to Friday, a weekday and therefore a weaker day for films aimed at children. In fact, Friday Wolfgang It was only number 2 at the box office, behind Mickey 17, but on Saturday it received a boost from the family audience and rose to number 1, a situation that everything indicates will be repeated this Sunday.

There is still no data to compare the performance of Wolfgang in Catalan cinemas and those outside Catalonia, but it is not expected that there will be major differences, as was the case in Alcarràs either The 47, which was not even dubbed into Spanish. Wolfgang Yes, it has been dubbed into Spanish and the distributors (Universal) have made it possible for cinemas to show it in a dubbed version or the original version with subtitles. In Catalonia, however, the film is only shown in the Catalan version, as was also the case with House on fire either Alcarràs.

Wolfgang It is one of the films that have benefited (with 1.2 million euros) from the line of subsidies of the Catalan Institute of Cultural Companies (ICEC) for projects in the original Catalan version "with a market vocation", a special bonus that they also received House on fire and The 47"I hadn't yet filmed in Catalan because the type of films I make are large-scale productions, and until now, making them in Catalan severely limited your budget," Ruiz Caldera explained at the ARA a few days ago. "Fortunately, this has changed thanks to funding from the ICEC and the obligation for private channels to invest in Catalan-language films."

The last aspect the director pointed out is, precisely, one of the keys to the success of Wolfgang: the Telecinco Cinema production, which has been intensively promoting the film on its programs for a few days now. Wolfgang It is, in fact, the first Catalan-language film produced by Telecinco, a milestone that is the result of the law that requires private television and platforms to allocate a percentage of their audiovisual investment to productions in co-official languages of the State. Other cases are The 47 and You know that one?, which were produced by the A3 Media group, although the promotional display was not comparable to what Telecinco has done with Wolfgang.

Towards a new historical record?

When we have only been collecting for two days, it is inevitable to wonder about the ceiling of WolfgangCould it become the highest-grossing film in Catalan cinema? The film's opening is always a good indicator of a film's commercial success, but there are cases in which a splendid opening weekend doesn't translate into a huge final box office: Bruc, the legend, opened with around €450,000 (more than €500,000 if we add the first two days, since the release was brought forward to Wednesday), but ended its run with €1,187,515. Currently, the highest-grossing film in the history of Catalan cinema (without adjusting for inflation) is The 47, which has already raised more than 4 million euros and, thanks to the push from the Goya Awards, is still playing.

Wolfgang It is guaranteed, however, to remain in theaters well in its second week, leading the Spanish box office. Furthermore, despite being released with 320 copies, which is a significant figure, it is expected to earn around €2,000 per copy, a sufficiently high average that will help it withstand the onslaught of the new Snow White Disney's upcoming film, which premieres next week. And if he's in shape for the Easter break, Wolfgang It could rack up significant box office receipts, but it's still too early to tell. In any case, it's confirmed that Catalan-language films' good run at the box office continues.