French films grossed an estimated €234m and 37.4m admissions from overseas markets in 2023. This was up 37.8% year on year and a 38.5% jump from 2022, but 18.5% down on a pre-pandemic 2019, according to export figures unveiled by Unifrance.
Animation was the top genre for French films internationally for the first time, stealing the spotlight from comedy and drama that typically attract the most audiences overseas.
The top five films by admissions were the animated Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir – The Movie (7.15m), live action comedy Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (2.74m), animation Argonauts (1.76m), Maiwenn’s period drama Jeanne Du Barry (1.72m) and live action tale The Three Musketeers – d’Artagnan (1.65m).
Russia was the top market for French films in 2023, despite the embargo on selling to Russian government-backed companies due to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. French films released in Russia in 2023 grossed €21.7m from 7.09 million admissions, up 155.1% from 2022. Miraculous: Ladybug & Cat Noir – The Movie sold 3.53m tickets in Russia, while Russia was the biggest international market for Jeanne Du Barry, garnering 1.06m admissions from the territory alone.
The next biggest markets overall for French films were Germany (4.21m), Poland (3.25m), Italy (2.73m) and Spain (1.8m).
In 2022 the biggest market was Germany, followed by Poland, Russia, Italy and Spain.
Poland was the stand-out market for Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (797,000 admissions), it was the UK and Ireland for Argonauts (307,000 admissions), while The Three Musketeers – d’Artagnan garnered a third of its total international admissions in Latin America, including 378,000 in Mexico, 106,000 in Brazil, and 57,000 in Colombia.
For the eighth year in a row, Western Europe was the leading export market for French films with over 15 million admissions, up 18.6% from 2022, but still down 24.3% on the 2017-2019 average.
Central Europe is the only region whose box office for French films hit pre-pandemic levels, up 31.9% compared to the 2017-2019 average, and recorded its highest market share in 25 years. Europe now accounts for almost 80% of French ticket sales outside France, compared to 50% in the past.
Festivals
In addition to animation and the live action family titles, the top 10 included two films that launched at Cannes: Opening film Jeanne Du Barry, starring director Maiwenn with Johnny Depp, and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall.
Ahead of its awards season push, Anatomy Of A Fall was on release in more than 600 cinemas in the US and Jeanne du Barry made it to the top 10 in 15 territories outside of France.
According to Unifrance, 23.1% of all titles selected at the 10 biggest international festivals in 2023 were French and, for the third year running, this made France the country with the most films selected, screened and awarded at those 10 festivals.
Looking ahead to 2024, anticipated titles include festival hopefuls Emilia Perez, Emmanuelle and Monsieur Aznavour, crowd-pleasing action films The Price of Money and The Count of Monte-Cristo, and family-friendly fare like Kina & Yuk, Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds and Cat & Dog.
Elstner is confident French films can return to pre-Covid figures of around 40m admissions a year, as achieved in both 2018 and 2019. “Maybe not in 2024, and some countries may never be completely back, but we’ll get there.”
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