The South Korean satire Parasite has become the most successful Cannes-winning film at the French box office in 15 years, new figures show.
Director Bong Joon-ho became the first Korean to lift the Palme d’Or in May for his brilliant class war black comedy and is an early favorite to lift the best foreign-language movie Oscar.
More than 1.6 million people have paid to see the film in France so far, according to the site CBO box office, a feat not achieved by a Cannes-winner since Michael Moore’s incendiary documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, in 2004.
After ecstatic reviews at the Toronto and Telluride festivals this month, Vanity Fair said it “has everything that a (Oscar) best-picture front-runner could possibly need. Except the English language.”