The Crimson Rivers (Les Rivieres Pourpres), which opened in France on Sept 27 to mixed reviews, attracted nearly one million admissions in its first week. The Gaumont title, a thriller directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, carved a huge 39% share for itself in its first week. Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man, in its second week, was a distant second with a 14% market share. Both titles were released on a similar number of prints: 557 for Hollow Man and 548 for Crimson Rivers.

Crimson Rivers is facing strong competition in its second week, however, from Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which opened Oct 6 to rave reviews. The Cannes favourite opened in second place in its first five days with an impressive 419,293 tickets from only 338 screens. Over the same period, Crimson Rivers remained in the top slot with 577,241 admissions, which brings the national total to over 1.5 million after 12 days.