Football
9y

FIFA film United Passions 'running at a loss of $26.8 million'

#INSERT type:image caption:Sepp Blatter is portrayed by Tim Roth in United Passions. END#

FIFA's $27 million film United Passions, whose cast includes Tim Roth, Gerard Depardieu and Sam Neill, has so far taken only between $150,000 and $200,000 in box office revenues, the Associated Press has reported.

That would mean the film, 90 percent funded by FIFA and intended to tell the story of world football's governing body, is so far running at a loss of around $26.8 million.

AP said that when United Passions -- which had its world premiere, attended by FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Depardieu, at Cannes in May -- was shown at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, about 120 people paying $22.70 per ticket watched it in a 500-seater cinema.

It reported that, according to film industry data analyst Rentrak, the revenue from that showing would have brought the international box office takings to no more than $200,000.

Rentrak said Switzerland became only the seventh country to screen United Passions in cinemas, with Ukraine the one nation to screen it prior to the summer's World Cup in Brazil. Brazilian film distributors turned down the opportunity to show it.

AP reported that Russia -- where takings were $144,000 -- was the main market. It was also screened in Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary.

Blatter is played by Roth, while Depardieu plays Jules Rimet and Neill portrays Joao Havelange, who last year resigned as FIFA's honorary president.

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