French films' results in international theaters for the first three quarters of 2013 are relatively low, with 32 million admissions registered outside France.
Rank | Title | Admissions | B. O. Revenues | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total Admissions |
1 | The Family | 4,986,050 | 29,134,630 | 4,200 | 3 | 4,986,050 |
2 | The Gilded Cage | 292,069 | 1,708,487 | 190 | 5 | 868,222 |
3 | Paulette | 132,576 | 882,513 | 254 | 3 | 655,483 |
4 | 17歳 | 94,723 | 610,647 | 296 | 5 | 164,031 |
5 | Fly me to the moon | 89,276 | 539,330 | 251 | 3 | 826,837 |
6 | Mood Indigo | 58,827 | 384,938 | 199 | 5 | 288,792 |
7 | Bright Days Ahead | 44,679 | 325,887 | 57 | 2 | 81,975 |
8 | Michael Kohlhaas | 37,100 | 267,683 | 81 | 3 | 43,605 |
9 | The Patience Stone | 26,009 | 161,598 | 66 | 4 | 113,882 |
10 | Stranger by the Lake | 22,778 | 155,771 | 51 | 3 | 25,644 |
11 | Thérèse Desqueyroux | 20,703 | 135,790 | 40 | 1 | 216,203 |
12 | Populaire | 20,645 | 115,634 | 33 | 3 | 440,894 |
13 | Oggy et les cafards | 19,368 | 77,531 | 50 | 1 | 19,368 |
14 | The Attack | 18,669 | 109,037 | 20 | 2 | 247,918 |
15 | F.B.I.: Frog Butthead Investigators | 14,848 | 29,696 | 36 | 1 | 55,755 |
16 | Jappeloup | 14,357 | 88,381 | 23 | 1 | 81,587 |
17 | 森に生きる少年~カラスの日~ | 14,285 | 50,334 | 133 | 2 | 31,598 |
18 | 大統領の料理人 | 12,327 | 104,305 | 8 | 5 | 458,888 |
19 | You Will Be My Son | 12,191 | 72,011 | 21 | 1 | 48,704 |
20 | Do Not Disturb | 11,038 | 37,581 | 20 | 1 | 14,208 |
In this lackluster context, The Family has posted the best performance by a French film abroad so far this year after just three weeks on the international circuit, credited with 5 million admissions. To date this year, only one French-language production, the Palme d'Or winner Love, has managed to attract over 1 million spectators outside France. Upcoming French releases scheduled for the remaining quarter are unlikely to allow international attendance figures for 2013 to reach the average of 69.3 million spectators registered since the start of the 2000s. Titles with strong commercial potential, such as Belle and Sébastien by Nicolas Vanier, The Young and Prodigious Spivet by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Venus in Fur by Roman Polanski, Me, Myself and Mum by Guillaume Gallienne, and ニューヨークの巴里夫(パリジャン) by Cédric Klapisch will no doubt register the major part of their international attendance figures in 2014.
Focus on a selection of outstanding majority French productions in September 2013
The Family began its international career in the United States and Russia. Released in the USA and English-speaking Canada under the title The Family, it jumped to second place at the box office in its opening week, generating $18.6 million from 3,091 prints (around 2.3 million admissions). It was still sitting in the top 10 at the end of its third week, boasting a total of $33.1 million (around 4 million admissions). Soon to approach the $40 million mark, The Family could well match previous high scores in this market earned by films produced by EuropaCorp, such as Transporter 3 (released in 2008) and Colombiana (2011), which each took around $35 million and attracted around 4.6 million spectators. Prior to Malavita, ten films executive produced by EuropaCorp registered over 1 million admissions. These include the smash hit Taken/96時間 (Fox – $145 million, 20.7 million admissions) and Taken 2 (Fox – 140 million, 17.5 million admissions), which are the two most successful French films ever monitored by UniFrance Films in the USA.
In another North American market, Malavita pulled in 1,000 spectators in Quebec (Séville) on its opening week, with 44 prints released, and currently registers 55,000 admissions after three weeks. These promising initial results should enable the film to register the second best performance by a French film in this market this year, behind Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (Séville – 167,000 admissions).
In Russia (Paradise/MGN), Malavita has crossed the 800,000 admissions mark after three weeks. This is an excellent performance, but one that will be short-lived since films are only offered a limited release in Russia. Its chances of reaching the symbolic 1 million admissions threshold therefore appear slim. Only nine French films have attained this attendance level since the beginning of the 2000s, three of which were EuropaCorp productions: Taxi 3 (1.3 million admissions in 2003), Transporter 3 (1.9 million admissions in 2008), and Taxi 4 / タクシー4 (3 million admissions), which is the top performing French film in Russia since 2000.
The Family currently tallies a total of 5 million admissions in international theaters.
Mission accomplished for The Gilded Cage, which now ranks as the most successful French film ever tracked by UniFrance Films in Portugal (Lusomundo), with a new record set in its sixth week. The previous record holder was Asterix and Obelix versus Cesar, which achieved 520,000 admissions in 1999. After eight weeks at the top of the Portuguese box office, The Gilded Cage has finally given way to Caught in Flight (a minority French co-production) and totals 675,000 admissions in its ninth week, thus ranking as the top performing title of any nationality in Portugal this year. It boasts around 250,000 admissions more than the number 2 performer in this market, Fast and Furious 6.
Among other markets in which The Gilded Cage has been released, results to date are good, but nowhere near as high as those in Portugal. It has registered 85,000 admissions in Germany after six weeks, 17,000 in Austria in the same period, 13,000 in Quebec, and just under 40,000 in Switzerland. It will be released in upcoming months in Australia and Colombia, as well as the world's biggest Portuguese-speaking market, Brazil.
The Gilded Cage has registered 868,000 admissions to date outside France.
17歳 has already clocked up 164,000 admissions abroad after hitting the international stage late August. The majority of these figures were generated in Russia, where it attracted 106,000 spectators. This is a fine performance by the latest offering from フランソワ オゾン, which is similar to the score of 8 Women in 2002 (110,000 admissions). Such figures are a major feat in Russia, which has been achieved in recent years by productions as varied as the horror film starring Laetitia Casta, Behind The Wall (111,000 admissions, released in 2011), the romantic comedy starring Sophie Marceau, Happiness Never Comes Alone (109,000 admissions, released in 2012), and, previously, Coco Before Chanel (107,000 admissions, released in 2009).
Also showing in Belgium, 17歳 has amassed 34,000 admissions at the end of its sixth week. This is a good score in this market, where just nine out of the 76 French films released last year attracted more than 30,000 spectators, including Billy and Buddy, the only film to have topped 100,000 admissions.
A Lady in Paris is the surprise hit of the year in Japan, with over 100,000 admissions to its credit since its release late July. This excellent score is a rare occurrence in this market, and can be partly attributed to a cast including Jeanne Moreau, who is highly popular in Japan, and the Chanel fashion worn by the actress, which notably attracted the attention of a prominent local singer. Furthermore, this film enjoyed added success due to the country's aging population. The theme of age was also a trump card for Love, which was released early this year (108,000 admissions).
A Lady in Paris posts a running total of 253,000 admissions outside France.
Paulette has reached 470,000 admissions in Germany after 12 weeks. Only 7% of all French films released in this market since 2000 (43 titles, including 33 majority French productions) have surpassed 400,000 admissions. And Paulette's run is by no means over, since in the past three weeks it brought in a weekly average of 20,000 admissions. Also released in Austria, Paulette has pulled in 38,000 spectators, the second highest admissions score of all French films released in 2013, behind Fly me to the moon (56,000 admissions).
Paulette has registered a total of 655,000 spectators in foreign theaters.