Monday, Aug 6, 2012    Text size: 

PARIS — There’s more rising in France's movie theaters than the “Dark Night.” Low budget spoof “Porn in the Hood” is the country's number one French-language box office film.

Released on July 11, the raunchy comedy came in close behind blockbusters "The Dark Knight Rises," "Ice Age: Continental Drift," "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.”

The film portrays three Parisian malcontents who desperately want to become porn stars by making a European adult film.

Thanks to France’s liberal move rating board, the movie was approved for all viewers despite plenty of sexual content, nudity and female ejaculation.

Kicked off with a successful $1 million viral Internet marketing campaign started in February, the movie got its legs with a following of more than 220,000 Facebook fans and 6,000 Twitter followers.

Directed by former dog-trainer Franck Gastambide, the $5.5 million budgeted film has already earned nearly $5.85 million in three weeks, according to Variety.

The movie stars stars Gastambide, Medi Sadoun, Jib Pocthier and Ramzy Bedia.

"When we boarded 'Hood,' our goal was to sell 500,000 tickets total at the box office. We've already sold nearly 620,000 tickets in two weeks," Francois Clerc, head of marketing at production and distribution company Gaumont said.

"When you build a marketing campaign for a film based on a (well-known) web series, you have a vast existing fan base, and that's a huge advantage compared with other projects," Clerc added.

The movie has also been sold in a number of other territories, including Germany and South Korea.