The Animal Kingdom

Source: Cannes International Film Festival

‘The Animal Kingdom’

The French box office continued its autumn dip in October with 13.86 million tickets sold, down 3.9% from October 2022.

However, an impressive final week of admissions in the month and a strong line-up of films set for release in November and December mean that France’s total 2023 box office should surpass last year’s takings.

The October box office came in at €99.8m, based on an average ticket price of €7.20. This is 26.1% below the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average.

The October figure is above September’s traditionally low box office which struggled with just €63.2m for 8.8 million admissions, but still low for what is typically a strong month at the French box office.

Since its strong summer surge in ticket sales, moviegoing in France has been affected by a countrywide bedbug scare following a series of sightings of the insects in local cinemas. The ongoing war in the Middle East has been accompanied by several large-scale protests in major French cities which has further dented takings.

Late month surge

On the plus side, despite a slow start, ticket sales skyrocketed during the last week of the month (Oct 25-31) with more than 5 million tickets sold, only the second time this year since the parallel releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer in mid-July.

Eric Marti, general manager of Comscore France, called the end-of-month rebound “very, very encouraging” due to “an exceptional diversity of films being offered”.

Forty-eight films were released for the first time in October, including a majority 23 French titles and six American films.

US family sequels dominated with Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie taking the top spot for the month with 1.76 million admissions followed by Universal’s Trolls Band Together with 930,000.

French titles also had a strong showing. Studiocanal led the French pack with Tarek Boudali’s comedy Only 3 Days Left (3 Jours Max) and Thomas Cailley’s genre-bending Cannes-premiering tale The Animal Kingdom. Only 3 Days Left, released on Oct. 25, sold 873,000 tickets in its first week in theatres and The Animal Kingdom, released on Oct. 4 trailed just behind with 836,000 for the month.

Other strong local titles for the month included Lea Domenach’s Bernadette (Warner Bros) starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac; Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s social satire A Difficult Year (Gaumont) following its international premiere in Toronto in September; and Albert Dupontel’s political fable Second Round (Pathé).

Vanessa Filho’s sexual abuse drama Consent based on the best-selling book and true story of a young teenager being groomed by a much older man has also been a surprise success story with 285,000 admissions and gaining traction with a 39% jump in ticket sales in its second week in theatres and a 79% jump in week three. While, says Marti, “people don’t go to the movies to see front- page news – they’re looking for other things,” films like Consent, The Animal Kingdom and Killers Of The Flower Moon that deal with timely and tough topics are finding audiences nonetheless.

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie was the only film that crossed one million admissions compared to three films in October of 2022 (November, Black Adam and Simone: Woman of the Century.) Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon (Paramount) is off to a strong start with 742,000 ticket sales sold since its October 18 release, the fifth best of the period. In a rare theatrical release for a streamer in the territory, the film will now have to wait 17 months before it can premiere on Apple TV+ in France.

Seven weeks into its theatrical run at home, another awards season contender, Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy Of A Fall, continues its strong box office run with nearly 1.3 million tickets sold and adding another 113,000 during October.

“Our French box office walks on two legs – one American, one French. When we have both, everything works and right now, both limbs are pulling their weight,” Marti explained.

Year-on-year optimism

French cinemas have sold 147.93 million tickets since the start of the year, 24% more than during the first ten months of 2022, but still down 11.3% from the 2017-2019 average.

Despite the slight slump in October, the French box office is still well positioned to surpass 2022’s 152 million in annual admissions thanks to rising ticket sales through the summer and a strong slate of releases set for the two remaining months of the year.

“Yes, early October was bad, but by this weekend, we’ll already have surpassed the box office of all of 2022,” says Marti. With the exception of pandemic years 2020-2022, more than 40 million admissions have been recorded in November and December in France since 2009 so the local industry should hit its target of an annual 190 million admissions by the end of the year.

Notable November releases include France’s Oscar entry The Taste Of Things (Gaumont), Wish (Disney), L’Abbé-Pierre: A Century Of Devotion (SND) and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (Sony).

December will see Wonka (Warner Bros), Pathe’s second instalment of two-part The Three Musketeers – Milady and Aquaman hitting theatres.