It's not news that French horror films have recently been doing well at the American box-office. Titane, Julia Ducournau's Palme d'Or winner is the latest example, scoring one of the biggest opening weekends for a French film.

Released in 562 theaters on its first weekend, the horror film starring Agathe Rouselle and Vincent Lindon grossed an estimated $515,747 - an astonishing number for a foreign film, especially considering the film's suspected niche audience. It is the 4th highest debut by a Palme d’Or winner, right behind Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 ($23.9m in June 2004), Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction ($9.3m in October 1994) and David Lynch’s Wild At Heart ($2.9m in August 1990).

Titane also delivered the second highest opening weekend for a French film in the US since 2005 with High Tension (Haute Tension), another French horror pic, directed by Alexandre Aja who then went on to direct many American films including The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha 3D.

In France, Titane did alright as well and was seen by 300,000 courageous viewers, twice what Julia Ducournau's previous film has achieved, Grave, - which was released before the pandemic happened.

Want to go see Titane? Find out here if it's playing in your local theater