Some 300,000 entries in three weeks, a growing success over time: fueled by a trend on TikTok and a teenage audience won over in the middle of school holidays, the film Consent continues to defy statistics.
Almost all films released in theaters attract a maximum number of spectators in the first days, before being gradually driven out by new releases. Except this adaptation of Vanessa Springora’s best-seller describing unvarnished the influence of the writer Gabriel Matzneff (played by Jean-Paul Rouve) over a 14-year-old teenager (Kim Higelin), which fills more and more theaters. To the point that on Wednesday, the film recorded more than 23,500 admissions, its best daily figure since its release on October 11, according to figures released by its producer Marc Missonnier.
After a modest first week (60,000 entries), the success was fueled in particular by the reactions that young, serious-looking spectators shared on TikTok. “It’s unheard of,” Marc Missonnier told AFP, who said he was “unable” to know how far this success would take the film. “The usual models do not apply, the big question is what will happen after the end of the school holidays” on Sunday. “The theaters tell us that they have never had so many young people under 20 or 25 come to see a French auteur film,” he added, recounting having been “completely overwhelmed” by the craze on TikTok.
Adapted from a testimonial book sold in more than 300,000 copies since the end of 2019, the film intended upon its release to disseminate its message even more widely, even if it can shock, with its scenes of intimacy shown head-on between the fifty-year-old novelist and the high school student.