International sales of the hit movie “Taken 3” and the DVD release of the sci-fi hit “Lucy” drove a nearly 90 percent spike in third quarter revenue for Luc Besson‘s EuropaCorp, the Paris-based film and TV production company announced Thursday.
Investors liked the news and EuropaCorp’s stock rose nearly two percent to $5.34 on the Paris exchange.
The Liam Neeson thriller “Taken 3,” which was the franchise finale and had a $48 million production budget, brought in $85 million in North America and more than $270 million at the worldwide box office. That meant the international sales unit brought in more than half of EuropaCorp’s $38 million third-quarter total revenues, which were up 88 percent over same quarter last year, with much of it coming from 20th Century Fox, the distributor of “Taken 3.”
Another bright spot for the company was home video, which reported sales of more than $8 million in the quarter, up seven percent from the same period. The gains were driven by the home video release of the Scarlett Johansson sci-fi hit “Lucy,” which Besson directed Universal Pictures distributed.
Besson owns 62 percent of EuropaCorp and serves as the chairman of its board of directors.