French films gained momentum at the international box office in 2022 compared to 2021, garnering 27 million admissions in global markets, according to Unifrance. This was up 51.8% from 2021 but down 32.5% on average compared to the pre-Covid years.
According to Unifrance, French films grossed €167.4m outside France in 2022, up 47.7% compared to 2021; More than 900 French films were released in international theatres, of which 27 were each released in more than 20 territories.
Majority French productions hit 17 million admissions, up 78.9% from 2021. 19.6 million admissions were for films in the French language, an impressive 139.2% jump from the year before.
Feel-good films fare well
Youth and family audiences were the first to return to theatres, so films targeted at these demographics performed best. Comedies and comedy dramas accounted for 39.7% of admissions of French films internationally, followed by animation with 24.5%, drama with just 14.2% and adventure and crime thrillers 13.4%.
Franchise comedy Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 (Qu’est-ce Qu’on A Tous Fait Au Bon Dieu?), sold by Orange Studio worldwide, topped annual admissions with 1.8 million tickets. It was followed by SND Films animation Pil’s Adventures with 1.32 million and Studiocanal’s family-friendly The Wolf And The Lion with 1.26 million.
French comedies accounted for more than half of all French admissions in North America and nearly one in two admissions in Western Europe and a total of 1.8 million in Germany alone.
Global audiences also tuned in to French toons with French animation up 174.8% over 2021, its best year since 2015 and 2017.
French dramas, however, saw their worst performance outside France in over a decade. Despite a large number of films released, none managed to generate more than 500,000 admissions. Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District, sold by Playtime, topped the drama category with 235,000 tickets and Xavier Giannoli’s multi Cesar-winning Lost Illusions, sold by Gaumont, racked up 225,000 admissions.
The documentary category was led by The Velvet Queen, repped by The Bureau, which had 241,000 admissions.
Western Europe vs China
Unifrance’s executive director Daniela Elstner told Screen the figures are a positive sign given the global theatrical distribution context.
“European distributors aren’t throwing down their hands in defeat. They are still buying films and audiences are following,” she said. French films attracted more spectators than a pre-pandemic 2019 in around 10 markets. Elstner added: “Just as many French films are being released. There are less admissions overall, but everyone wants them.”
French films were most popular in Western Europe for the seventh consecutive year, where 12.2 million tickets were sold, up 81.8% compared to 2021, but down 43.1% against 2019.
Germany led European admissions for French films with 2.82 million tickets sold over the year. Poland followed with 2.64 million tickets followed by Russia with 2.55 million then Italy and Spain. Ticket sales in Germany for Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 hit 748,000, the best performance for a French film in a foreign market since the start of the pandemic.
French titles stayed strong in Latin America where admissions doubled compared to 2021 for a market share of 10%, the best since 2018.
The most notable geographical shift happened in Asia, due mostly to the impact of Covid on on theatrical distribution in China. China was the top territory for French films in 2021, but ticket sales plummeted almost fivefold in 2022 with just two French titles released there over the year, namely Love at Second Sight with 261,000 admissions and a re-release of The Chorus with 200,000. Vietnam provided a welcome surprise generating 283,000 admissions for French titles, the best for the country since 2015 and a major jump from its reported zero activity in 2021.
Festivals hits
French cinema continues to dominate major international film festivals in terms of both presence and prizes. 238 French films made it to the official selections of the 10 major film festivals worldwide in 2022, up 17.8% from 2021 and representing 24.2% of the total number of films in the selections.
Of the films selected for the festivals, 63 were fully French productions, 175 were co-productions and 149 had CNC approval. 86 films, 36.6% of the films selected, were notably from female directors.
Unifrance highlighted the fact that female directors were not only selected at festivals, but earned major accolades. Notable triumphs include Alice Diop’s Saint Omer which won two prizes in Venice, Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon which won both the Jury Prize in Cannes and the Silver Bear for Best Director in Berlin, and Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret who won the Un Certain Regard prize for The Worst Ones.
Streaming share
Despite US streaming dominance, France is the third most widely represented production territory on SVOD platforms worldwide with 6.5% of films, far behind the US with a 38.8% market share and just under India with 6.7%.
Mubi offers the biggest selection of French films which make up 31.3% of its catalogue followed by Curiosity Stream (10.3%), Netflix (6.3%), Amazon Prime Video (4.4%), and HBO Max (3.6%). French productions were also well-represented on local platforms such as Curzon Home Cinema (UK, 27.2% French films), The Criterion Channel (North America, 20.1%), and Qubit (Argentina, 19.2%).
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