- Box Office
German-Speaking May 16, 2022
There was not much movement this week – just like in the US charts the top five spots held steady with no debut releases breaching the list.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stayed in the top spot for its second week with Fantastische Tierwesen 3: Dumbledores Geheimnisse (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) holding on to second and The Lost City – Das Geheimnis der Verlorenen Stadt placing third, followed by Downton Abbey 2.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 clawed his way back into fifth place, still a family fan favorite after more than four (!) months in the top ten. The Northman starring Alexander Skårsgaard and Nicole Kidman also climbed up again, to sixth place. Children’s fave Die Biene Maja – Das Geheime Königreich (Maja, the Bee – The Golden Orb) slipped just one spot down to seventh, Söhnke Wortmann’s Eingeschlossene Gesellschaft stayed in eighth, and Die Gangster Gang (The Bad Guys) had a revival and made it back to number nine.
The only new release in Germany’s top ten – and in tenth place – is Firestarter, the new adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a girl with the ability to control fire. Since the day she was born, Charlie (played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has had a strange gift: she can start a fire by merely thinking about it. At first, during her childhood, this happens only sometimes, but as she grows into a teenager, her ability becomes tougher to control, forcing her and her parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon, whom we know from Succession) to constantly run from the authorities. Add to this that a secret government agency wants to recruit Charlie to utilize her “talent” for weapons of mass destruction, and you have the perfect storm. Charlie, with the help of her father, has mastered the art of suppressing anger and pain – two major components of starting fires. But when something happens at her newest school, the family’s location is tracked, tracked and a representative from the agency gains entry into their hideout with the plan to kidnap Charlie no matter what.
King’s novel came out in 1980 and was adapted for the big screen four years later with Drew Barrymore starring as Charlie. The new version is directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil) and was filmed on location in Canada.
Austria, too, had no major debut success in its charts as the titles remained mostly the same, only shuffled a bit differently: Fantastische Tierwesen 3: Dumbledores Geheimnisse (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) tumbled to third place with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness winning the weekend, followed closely by The Lost City – Das Geheimnis der Verlorenen Stadt.
Austrian kids got their parents to take them to see Die Biene Maja – Das Geheime Königreich (Maja, the Bee – The Golden Orb) in droves which gave the family cartoon an edge over the competition of dark comedy Geschichten vom Franz, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Downton Abbey 2, and Der Onkel. Just like in neighboring Germany, Die Gangster Gang (The Bad Guys) landed back in ninth spot with The Northman rounding out the Austrian top ten.