Box office
The Grand Budapest Hotel was considered a surprise box office success.[116] The film's performance plateaued in North America after a strong start, but finished the theatrical run as Anderson's highest-grossing film in the region.[117][118] It performed strongest in key European and Asian markets.[117][119] Germany was the most lucrative market, and the film's link to that country boosted the box office performance.[119] South Korea, Australia, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom represented some of the film's largest takings.[119] The Grand Budapest Hotel earned $59.3 million (34.3 percent of its earnings) in the United States and Canada and $113.7 million (65.7 percent) overseas, for a worldwide total of $173 million,[3] making it the 46th-highest-grossing film of 2014,[120] and Anderson's highest-grossing film to date.[121]
The film posted $2.8 million from 172 theaters during its opening week in France, trailing Supercondriaque and Non-Stop. In Paris, The Grand Budapest Hotel screenings were the weekend's biggest numbers.[109] The film's $16,220 per-theater average was the best opening for any Anderson-directed project in France to date.[104] In its second week the number of theaters grew to 192, and The Grand Budapest Hotel grossed another $1.64 million at the French box office.[122] Earnings dropped by just 30 percent the following weekend, for a total gross of $1.1 million.[123] By March 24, the box office posted a five percent increase, and The Grand Budapest Hotel's French release had taken $8.2 million overall.[124]
The week of March 6 saw The Grand Budapest Hotel take $6.2 million from 727 theaters internationally, yielding the most robust figures in Belgium ($156,000, from 12 theaters), Austria ($162,000, from 29 theaters), Germany ($1.138 million, from 163 theaters), and the United Kingdom (top-three debut, with £1.53 million or $1.85 million from 284 theaters).[122][125] It increased 11 percent in Germany the following weekend to $1.1 million,[123] and The Grand Budapest Hotel yielded $5.2 million from German cinemas by the week of March 31.[126] It sustained the box office momentum into the second week of UK general release with improved sales from an expanded theater presence, and by the third week, the film topped the national top ten with £1.27 million ($1.55 million) from 458 screens, buoyed by positive reviews in the media.[125] After a month it had earned $13.2 million in the UK.[126] The Grand Budapest Hotel's expansion to other overseas markets continued toward the end of March, marked by significant releases in Sweden (first place, with $498,108), Spain (third, with $1 million), and South Korea (the country's biggest specialty film opening ever, with $622,109 from 162 cinemas).[124] During its second week of release in South Korea, the film's box office ballooned by 70 percent to $996,000.[126] On its opening week elsewhere, The Grand Budapest Hotel earned $1.8 million in Australia, $382,000 in Brazil, and $1 million in Italy.[127][128] By May 27, the film's international gross exceeded $100 million.[129]
In the United States, The Grand Budapest Hotel opened to a $202,792-per theater average from a four-theater $811,166 overall gross, breaking the record for most robust live-action limited release previously held by Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012).[130][131] The return, exceeding Fox's expectations for the weekend, was the best US opening for an Anderson-directed project to date.[130] The Grand Budapest Hotel also eclipsed Moonrise Kingdom's $130,749 per-theater average, hitherto Anderson's highest-opening limited release.[130] Fading interest in films hoping to capitalize on Academy Awards prestige and its crossover appeal to younger, casual moviegoers were crucial to The Grand Budapest Hotel's early box office success.[130] The film sustained the box office momentum as large suburban cineplexes were added to its limited run, racking $3.6 million the second week and $6.7 million the following weekend.[132][133] The film officially entered wide release the week of March 30 by screening in 977 theaters across North America.[134] New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, and Montreal were The Grand Budapest Hotel's most successful North American cities.[135] Its theater count peaked at 1,467 in mid-April before a gradual decline.[136] By the end of the month, the film's domestic gross topped $50 million.[137] The Grand Budapest Hotel ended its North American run on February 26, 2015.[138]
Critical response
Mr. Anderson is no realist. This movie makes a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures.
– A. O. Scott, The New York Times[87]
The Grand Budapest Hotel received critical acclaim and various critics selected the film in their end-of-2014 lists.[139] It appeared on professional rankings from BBC and IndieWire, based on retrospective appraisal, as one of the greatest films of the twenty-first century.[140][141] In December 2021, the film's screenplay was listed number twenty-five on the Writers Guild of America's "101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (So Far)".[142] Many of the reviews complimented The Grand Budapest Hotel for its craftsmanship, often singling out the film's zany sensibility and Anderson's expertise for further praise,[143][144][145] the latter for the creation of a fanciful onscreen world which does not take itself too seriously.[146][147] Occasionally The Grand Budapest Hotel drew criticism for evading some of the harsh realities of the subject matter; according to a Vanity Fair reviewer, the film's devotion to a "kitschy adventure story that feels curiously weightless, at times even arbitrary" undermined any thoughtful moral.[148] The comic treatment of a madcap adventure was cited among the strengths of the film,[149][150][151] though sometimes the fragmented storytelling approach was considered a flaw by some critics, such as The New Yorker's David Denby, for following a sequence of events that seemed to lack emotional continuity.[90]
The actors' performances were routinely mentioned in the reviews. Journalists felt the ensemble brought The Grand Budapest Hotel ethos to life in comedic and dramatic moments,[146][152] particularly Ralph Fiennes,[153][154] whose performance was called "transformative" and "total perfection".[146][155] San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle felt Fiennes's casting was the study of a reserved actor exhibiting the fullest extent of his emotional range,[147] and Los Angeles Times's Kenneth Turan believed he exuded an "unbounded but carefully calibrated zeal", the only such actor capable of realizing Anderson's vision of a "will-o'-the-wisp world heft and reality while still being faithful to the singular spirit that underlies it".[146] On the other hand, characterization in The Grand Budapest Hotel drew varying responses from reviewers; Gustave, for example, was described as a man "of convincing feelings", "sweetly wistful",[146][156] but a protagonist lacking the depth of other prolific heroes in the Anderson canon, emblematic of a film that doesn't quite appear to fully flesh out the core cast of characters.[91]
As per the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 318 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50 out of 10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Typically stylish but deceptively thoughtful, The Grand Budapest Hotel finds Wes Anderson once again using ornate visual environments to explore deeply emotional ideas."[157] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, with 94% positive reviews based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[158]
Accolades
The Grand Budapest Hotel was not an immediate favorite to dominate the 87th Academy Awards season. The film's early March opening was thought to deter any chance of Oscar recognition, for scheduling a fall release was the usual practice for studios positioning their films for awards attention.[159][160] The last spring season releases to achieve Best Picture success until then were Erin Brockovich (2000) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).[160] A frontrunner had not emerged as the Academy Award nominations approached, partly as a result of a critical backlash against the season's biggest contenders, such as American Sniper, Selma and The Imitation Game.[160] Even so, US critics spread their honors for The Grand Budapest Hotel when compiling their end-of-year lists, and the film soon gained momentum thanks to a sustained presence in the award circuit.[160] Fox Searchlight president Nancy Utley attributed the film's ascendancy to its months-long presence on multimedia home entertainment platforms, which lent greater viewing opportunity for Academy voters.[159] At the Academy Award season, the film received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing; and won Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Costume Design.[161]
The Grand Budapest Hotel was a candidate for other awards for excellence in writing, acting, directing, and technical achievement. It received nominations such as the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[160][162] The film's other wins include three Critics' Choice Movie Awards, five British Academy Film Awards, and a Golden Globe in the category of Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy.[163][164][165]
