BARCELONA – 3D animated movie “Foosball,” the latest film from Juan Jose Campanella (“The Secret in Their Eyes”), rewrote the history books Thursday in Argentina, opening in cinemas theaters to a first-day Pesos 4.3 million ($774,000) box office and 104,000.
Thursday figures are the best opening ever for an Argentine film, the biggest for Universal in Argentina, and the second highest bow of all time for a film of any nationality in the country.
A humor-tinged adventure-love story centering on a boy, Amadeo, whose table football figures come alive, helping him to save his hometown and win back his childhood sweetheart, “Foosball” bowed on the first day of Argentina’s so-called Winter Vacation.
That may have goosed results, but “Foosball’s” first commercial release anywhere in the world was made in the face of tremendous competition from Universal-Illumination’s “Despicable Me 2” (which sold 83,000 tix), Pixar’s “Monsters University” (55,000) and DreamWorks Animation’s “Turbo” (46,000).
Costing a final $21 million, “Foosball” already boasts two more records, as the biggest-budgeted Argentine film of all time and the biggest Latin American animated feature ever.
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The first-day result suggests box office will justify the risk.
“We are really excited and are now showing the film in the U.S., and aim to close a deal by the middle of August,” said “Foosball” producer Jorge Estrada Mora.
