Brazilian films smashing national box-office records

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Tight security may be the most important part of director Jose Padilha and his Zazen Productions' plan to self-distribute "Elite Squad 2," which debuted on 696 screens Friday in Brazil -- making it the widest national release ever.

While the original "Squad" of 2007 garnered both local and international acclaim, it suffered financially thanks to rampant pirating. Local news and media giant Globo estimates that more than 11 million people saw a bootlegged version of the original "Squad" before the film even hit theaters.

Not about to make the same mistake twice, especially when Padilha and his team raised the money themselves to distribute the film, this time around they limited the number of copies of "Squad 2" that were worked on during post-production and kept them under strict lock and key.

Now it seems the extra security measures and ambitious distribution strategy are on track to pay off big. Brazilian film trade group FilmeB reports that over the weekend "Squad 2" rang up 1.29 million admissions while grossing $8.3 million -- making it the biggest Brazilian film opening in history.

As an added bonus, "Squad 2's" numbers exceeded the three-day opening earlier this year of the heavily marketed U.S. blockbuster "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse." A Brazilian film beating out a major release like "Twilight" is a rare occurrence in a market that has long been dominated by the U.S. major studios.

For further perspective, the current No. 1 national film of 2010, "Nosso Lar," sold 572,000 tickets in its first weekend and took five days to hit a million, while the No. 2 performer so far this year, "Chico Xavier" attracted roughly 585,000 theatergoers.

"Squad 2" may very well be on its way to unseating Daniel Filho's 2009 comedy "If I Were You 2" as the No. 1 national film of all time. But that is not to say that Filho has lost his touch, having produced and directed biopic "Chico Xavier," which until little over a week ago was the No. 1 local movie of the year.

SUBJECTS IN SYNC

The film that surpassed it, "Nosso Lar," happens to be an adaptation of a novel plucked from the archives of the very same Spiritist writer and medium who is the title character of "Chico Xavier."

"It really was just a coincidence that the two films came out the same year," promises "Nosso Lar" producer Iafa Britz, who began developing "Nosso Lar" in 2006, well before "Chico Xavier" was in development.

Britz's film has set a new precedent beyond box office returns. "Nosso Lar" is the costliest Brazilian film in history at $11.9 million. Britz and her team incorporated a great deal of digital effects to re-create the fantastical version of heaven that serves as the backdrop in the film. Such an approach is uncommon for low-budgeted Brazilian films dependent on government subsidies for financing. "Nosso Lar" also employed composer Phillip Glass and blockbuster cinematographer Ueli Steiger.

Britz, a good friend of Filho's, believes that the success of "Chico" helped pave the way for "Nosso Lar's" own good fortune. "Old people who remember seeing 'Tom and Jerry' the last time they went to the movies have been going to see (it)," says Britz.

"Nosso Lar," which originally debuted on 450 screens, is still in cinemas, on more than 300 screens, and has thus far in 2010 grossed $19.8 million, the third-highest national gross of all time.

While turning out sequels, adapting popular books with built-in fan bases, or making biopics about well-known or beloved national figures is old hat for Hollywood producers looking to hedge their bets, such strategies in Brazil still shine relatively new.

With the cinematic hits of this year and last, the future Brazilian market could very well be flooded with a surge of offspring from previously successful films. "Nosso Lar" producer Britz has already gone on record to say that a follow-up to "Nosso Lar" is in the works and should be out by 2012. It may be too early to know whether or not there will someday be an "If I Were You 3" or "Elite Squad 3" in Brazilian multiplexes, but without a doubt, local executives aren't likely to walk away from the proposition without some serious thought.

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