Thomas Cailley: “I have the impression that the public has taken over the Animal Kingdom”

What if The Animal Kingdom became the fall sleeper? That’s all we wish for its director who we questioned about the first figures…

After a gentle start, the figures of the Animal Kingdom suggest that this beautiful, strange film could be one of the real successes of the end of the year. We caught its director, just before Wednesday’s numbers for an update.

The Animal Kingdom, a new French box office phenomenon?

First: When the first day’s figures came out, some people were a little worried. How did you experience the release of the film for your part?
Thomas Cailley: The numbers were good. Not incredible, but definitely okay. We need to recontextualize. An entry figure is necessarily relative, but we were in a weak market at the beginning of October. I even think it was one of the quietest weeks of the year. In any case we had a number evening which was joyful.

And everything was decided on the first weekend.
TC: That’s when it really exploded. It was a little more than we expected and we were very happy with the weekend. The film made 100,000 over the two days, Saturday and Sunday, and everyone looked to the following Wednesday to see how the film would fare with the new arrivals on the market. We always expect it to drop in the second week and it varies. It could be 30%, 40%… We said to ourselves that, below 35% drop, it would be positive. And when we discovered that it was hardly going down… Over the week, we’re going to be down less than 3%, maybe less than 2%; Monday we were even at over 1%.

How do you analyze this trend? What does she say about the film’s reception?
CT: This clearly demonstrates sustained word of mouth. By definition, this word of mouth did not start in the first two days, but we identified it from the first weekend. Another important thing for us is that the film works everywhere. As much in multiplexes as in arthouse cinemas in city centers and in medium-sized towns. This means that it affects all audiences. And that’s really what pleases me the most, because from the start, our ambition was to make this film with the demands and precision of an auteur film, but with the desire to touch a wider audience.

Do you know what type of audience is there?
CT: Yes. And what’s great is that many young people come. My distributor told me that all directors want to reach young people and this time, it seems to be working. It is also an audience that shares a lot of its love of films or its desire for films on social networks. And we see traces of it on the web, obviously, on Instagram in particular. The feedback from the theaters is also very strong. As I told you, the operators have rarely seen such an outfit and above all they are very surprised to see so many people leaving in tears. This is undoubtedly what makes the film popular.

The emotion?
CT: Yes ! At the end of the Cannes screenings, I was delighted with the feedback, but I must admit that I found it a shame that we only remembered its singular side of the film. “It’s a UFO” Or “we’re not used to doing that in France“: it’s very rewarding, very precious. But today, the majority feedback is the emotion linked to the story and the characters. I receive a lot of messages on the networks which come back to this. I I think that’s why a lot of people go to see it multiple times. They go back with their kids, with their parents, share it with their friends… It’s wonderful because it means people are getting hold of it .

The Animal Kingdom: Paul Kircher, on his way to a Caesar?

You were talking about the reception in Cannes. How did you experience the rave critical reception?
CT: Very good (laughs) What do you want me to tell you? (laughs)

Were you ever afraid that it would be too much for the film to carry? That this unanimous press, which salutes the strangeness or the singularity of the film, leaves the spectators, shall we say… circumspect?
CT: I didn’t experience it that way because I immediately had the impression that there was no difference between the star spectators and the average press on Allociné. It’s still a good sign. I didn’t feel the divorce you want to talk about… I understand what you’re telling me because it’s a question that we were actually able to ask ourselves. But I don’t feel like that was the case. Afterwards, this very powerful response from the press is also due to the release date. We came out on October 4, at the very beginning of the month. The monthlies, the weeklies, the dailies, the radios, the TV: everything arrived at the same time, in a pocket handkerchief, between Sunday and Thursday. We were obviously delighted to have critical support, such media coverage, but we knew it wouldn’t do it for the first day. Because there are plenty of people who were going to learn of the existence of Animal Kingdom release day! It seems crazy when you have your head in it from Cannes, but many spectators, including movie buffs, had the choice of such an offer (between what is showing in the cinema and the platforms and the news in general), that many were only able to discover the existence of the film in the middle of the week. Hence the Wednesday figures which ended up gradually increasing.

What were the marketing strategies? So you first wanted to focus on the element of surprise?
CT: As I explained, we went out after the summer and we knew from the start that it was at the start of the school year that everything was going to be decided. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to talk about it, but we felt like if we left too soon we’d have a hard time keeping people interested. How to maintain communication from May until October? No one can do that! As a result, the teams sought to make the film more and more visible from the end of August. And as the media coverage was going to come out at the last minute, the distributor relied on a slow fuse strategy. Relying on word of mouth if possible. That’s what was decided after Cannes because at that time, we understood that the best argument was the film itself.

Its hybrid character?
CT: Yes, the fact that it is both an intimate and spectacular film, that there is comedy, action, drama, that it is realistic and fantastic. All these concepts which may seem contradictory, and which are very difficult to synthesize. The trailer wasn’t easy to make, for example. I find it very good, but it was complicated to grasp this idea of ​​hybridization. It’s almost impossible in two minutes to talk about all that.

I confirm: even for criticism it was complicated to envisage.
CT: Yes, yes, I saw (laughs). How do you tell a viewer what it is? Remind you that there is something unique and that they haven’t necessarily seen it before… Perfect. But how to summarize the film? How to find the argument? When we say it’s a fantastic film, that’s not enough. We can’t just say that it’s a film about a father-son story either. I admit that it wasn’t easy to describe it in a concise way. Even in terms of gender, you can’t put it in a particular box. But that’s the whole point of having had critical support and wide media coverage. By dint of having multiplied the angles, ultimately, the film ended up offering itself in its versatility.