Brazil is one of the world’s fastest growing markets. It boasts a booming middle class with disposable income to spend in an ever-increasing number of multiplexes watching a wide variety of new releases. The total box office grew 2.1% in 2008 from the year before to $31.9m, with admissions up a slight 0.3% year on year.

Films from the US dominate, with local titles snagging a decent size of the market. In 2008, 13 Brazilian titles featured in the top 100. Five foreign (non-US) films made it into the top 100.

Two were animated European films, Ben Stassen’s Fly Me To The Moon (Belgium) and Guillaume Ivernel and Arthur Qwak’s Dragon Hunters (a collaboration between France, Germany and Luxembourg), which were dubbed into Portuguese and aimed at the family market.

After the US, France exports most films to Brazil. But France itself is not well-represented in the top 100, since many of the movies are international co-productions with very little spoken French: Joe Wright’s Atonement (UK-US-France), Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age (UK-US-France-Germany) and Wong Kar Wai’s My Blueberry Nights (Hong Kong-China-France).

The only 100% French-produced films in the top 100 are the English-language movies Taken, starring Liam Neeson, and Transporter 3, starring Jason Statham.

Drama and action titles score best with the arthouse audience which seeks out foreign films. But with the exception of Atonement and My Blueberry Nights, festival hits fail to register.

TOP 100, 2008

13% - Percentage of local films, including co-productions

5% - Percentage of foreign (non-local, non-US) films.

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