Broken Embraces' box office woes

Pedro Almodovar's latest film Broken Embraces took $1.3m in its opening weekend at the Spanish box office, a full $1m less than his previous offering Volver, following a mixed response from critics.

The film was released nationwide in Spain by Warner Bros on March 18 and had taken $1.9m by end of play Sunday (March 22). It is in second place in the local box office chart behind Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.

However that chart position belies the fact that Broken Embraces' opening figures are Almodovar's lowest since 1999's All About My Mother, which took $1.1m in its opening weekend. Since then, Talk To Her ($1.4), Bad Education ($1.6m) and Volver ($2.3m) have all taken more.

Furthermore, the $1.3m figure pales in comparison to Alejandro Amenebar's latest Spanish-language film The Sea Inside, which took an impressive $3.1m in its opening weekend in 2004.

That said, All About My Mother went on to gross the same amount of money as Volver at the local box office ($13m), so Broken Embraces might still perform well if word of mouth is good.

The film itself is a complex, romantic drama about an actress (Penelope Cruz) who strikes up a relationship with the director of her film (Lluis Homar) behind the back of her rich older boyfriend (Jose Luis Gomez), with several major repercussions.