By Tuesday 17 September, Parasite had reached 1.647 admissions since its June release and its accolade at the 2019 Festival de Cannes. A double record for its independent distributor The Jokers Films, seeing as a Korean film had never previously achieved a million admissions in France.
That makes it the highest ranking Palme d'or recipient since the documentary Farenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore in 2004, which drew 2.370 million viewers into French cinemas.
Only two previous Palme d'or winners had surpassed a million admissions: Entre les murs (The Class) by Laurent Cantet in 2008 (1.618 million admissions) and Blue Is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche (1.037 million).
A black comedy, family drama about social inequalities, Parasite tells the story of an unemployed family, whose lives suddenly change the day their son becomes an English teacher for a wealthy family. The arrival of these “parasites” marks the start of an uncontrollable downward spiral of events.
[Source AFP]