Female-empowerment comedy “Sin Rodeos” (“Empowered”), the recent Spanish hit from “Torrente” star-director Santiago Segura, is proving there’s an audience for feminist-tinted comedies in a machista world.
Starring Maribel Verdú (“Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”), and released by Adolfo Blanco’s A Contracorriente Films on March 2, “Empowered” bowed in the No. 2 spot at the Spanish box office for a final $5.5 million box office take, making it the third-biggest Spanish release to date in 2018
Also starring Rafael Spregelburd (“The Man Next Door”) and with a cameo from Segura, “Empowered” has been licensed via sales shingle Film Sharks to Australia/New Zealand (Palace Pictures), Italy (Colorado Films) and Argentina and Uruguay (new distributor Digicine).
Also closed: Colombia and Peru (Cinecolor Films), Central America (Wiesner Distribution), former Yugoslavia (2i Films) and Taiwan (Av Jet). The U.S., France, Greece, Turkey, Russia and China are under negotiation, Rud added.
The five “Torrente” saga comedies, which have grossed an aggregate €79.9 million ($90.1 million) in Spain, turned on a unconscionable scumbag, tub-o’-lard sexist ex-dick. “Empowered,” in contrast, portrays a woman who’s trampled on at work and ignored by her partner. Having drunk a whole bottle of a herbal remedy to liberate her tension, however, she suddenly speaks her own mind.
It marks a Spanish remake of the remarkably fertile Chilean original “No Filter,” which has now generated hit retreads in Mexico and Spain, with an Argentina redo still to come.
“I been working with Santiago Segura and Maria Luisa Gutierrez for 10 years now and never stop being surprised at how refreshing their films are for the international market,” Films Sharks topper Guido Rud said.
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