EXCLUSIVE: Chantal in Fairyland (Chantal im Märchenland) is off to a fantastic start at the German box office. A spinoff of the hugely successful Fack Ju Göhte comedies, the Constantin Film title banked the best Easter holiday launch day ever for a local movie and the best opening day of the year for all films, teeing it up for a strong debut session.
Thursday amassed 160K admissions ($1.73M) and took a 43% share of the market. The result is 40% higher than the launch day of Barbie. Including Wednesday previews, Chantal has grossed $2.8M through Thursday. Factoring in yesterday’s previews in Austria, the running cume from both markets is $3.12M.
Written and directed by the Göhte movies’ Bora Dağtekin, Chantal in Fairyland centers on one of the two principal female characters from the franchise, now an eternal influencer without followers. A time travel story that plays around with movie princess tropes, the film follows Chantal (Jella Haase) and her best friend Zeynep (Gizem Emre) who are transported to a fairytale world through an antique magic mirror, which they think is a social media gimmick, thrilling Chantal who sees it as an opportunity to generate content.
However, this isn’t just any fairy tale. As Chantal searches for her way back home, she realizes that in the realm of dragons, fairies and other characters, many things are different than what we know from the stories of the Brothers Grimm. They encounter Princess Amalia (Maria Ehrich), who doesn’t dream of being married; the sensitive Prince Bosco (Max von der Groeben), who suffers from identity problems; Aladin (Mido Kotaini), who has never heard of a flying carpet; and a witch (Nora Tschirner) who is anything but the clichés.
Billed as a funny and touching adventure that gives the world of fairy tales a new and contemporary twist, the film aims to show you definitely don’t need a prince to have a happy ending.
Playing on 800 screens throughout German-speaking markets this weekend, the movie has a clear runway in its demo and no other new titles against it this weekend (Godzilla X Kong goes to Germany on April 5).
The Fack Ju Göhte films (aka Suck Me Shakespeer) released in 2013, 2015 and 2017. They were huge hits in German-speaking Europe, taking more than $225M collectively across the continent.
Returning cast members from those films include Haase, Emre and von der Groeben.
Chantal in Fairyland is produced by Lena Schoemann and executive produced by Oliver Berben and Martin Moszkowicz.