Film & TV Export Agency Unifrance, Sales Agents Look For Silver Linings As French Cinema Posts 11% Drop In Int’l B.O. In 2024
The international box office for French cinema dropped by 11% in 2024, according to data released by Unifrance on Monday, but the film and TV export agency said the figures only gave part of the picture.
Unifrance said French film productions racked up 33.4M admissions internationally in the first 50 weeks of 2024 for a €222.8M ($227.09M) gross. The body gave a preliminary forecast for the entire year of 38M admissions for €250M ($254M) of revenue, which it said corresponded to a 11% drop compared to 2023.
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The top performing French film in international markets was The Count of Monte Cristo, which generated 3.3M admissions for a €20.7M ($21.2) gross. It was followed in the charts by four films that had begun their international careers in 2023: Anatomy of a Fall, Autumn and the Black Jaguar, The Taste Of Things and The Jungle Bunch 2: World Tour.
2024 newcomers in the international top ten included surprise local breakout A Little Something Else, which drew close to one million spectators internationally having topped the B.O. office at home, followed by comedy Oh La La with 800,000 tickets sold; Cat & Dog – The Great Crossing with 600,000 entries and Maria Montessori with 400,000 entries.
The top territory for French films was Germany, with 4.1M admissions, accounting for 12.3% of the total; followed by Russian with 3.7M admissions (11%); Mexico with 2.6M (7.7%), Belgium and Luxembourg with 2.1M (6.3%) and Poland and Italy with 2M each (6%); Spain with 1.7M (5%), China and English-speaking North America with 1.5M each (4.6%) and Switzerland with 1M (3.4%).
Unifrance Director of Cinema Gilles Renouard presented the report at Unifrance’s fifth Export Day, gathering film and TV execs to discuss the challenges of exporting French movies and TV shows around the world.
The event traditionally unfolds on the eve of Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris which kicks off today and is billed as the biggest market event focused on French content outside of Cannes.
Dissecting the figures, Renouard said the drop in admissions and revenues had to viewed within the context of a weaker global box office in 2024.
“The figures are in line with the trend in international markets which were down by an average of 9% by mid-December, even if France’s domestic box office bucked this trend,” he said, referring to the fact that France was one of the only territories where the box office was stronger in 2024.
A major drag on the global B.O., he said, had been the absence of big U.S. movies in the first part of the year in the immediate aftermath of the Hollywood strikes.
“Contrary to a widely held belief, this didn’t help other types of cinema, because without the big American films, people fell out of the habit of going to the movies,” he said.
Another headwind was changing viewing habits, with the types of spectator open to French productions increasingly consuming these works on platforms.
He pointed to the example of last year’s animated feature Miraculous The Movie (Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening) by Jeremy Zag, which was France’s biggest box office hit internationally, drawing 7.5M spectators.
“The film went directly onto Netflix in the U.S. This year it’s Emilie Pérez, which means spectators are missing from the theatres and the final figures,” said Renouard, referring to the Cannes Jury Prize and Golden Globes winner which is a frontrunner in the upcoming Academy Awards.
Netflix, which acquired North America and the U.K. rights during Cannes, gave the film a limited theatrical release in the U.S. and Canada on November 1, ahead of its streaming launch on November 13.
Similarly, The Count of Monte Cristo – which was France’s most successful film at the international box office in 2024, generating 3.3M admissions for a €20.7M gross – went straight to TV in Italy, where it was broadcast as a special film event on December 26 and 27 by Canale5.
It also only releases on January 23, 2025 in Germany, which was France’s top export market in 2024. Back home, the lavish period adventure-revenge tale came in second in the 2024 B.O. office chart grossing roughly €66.1M ($68M).
Renouard was joined on stage by sales heads Ramy Nahas at mainstream film company SND and Agathe Mauruc at arthouse stalwart Pyramide International.
Like Renouard, Nahas was optimistic in the longer run, pointing to the relative health of France’s domestic box office, in the face of falling numbers across the world, as well as the success of local films in 2024.
“We gained one million spectators in 2024… which was essentially due to the strength of our local cinema,” said Nahas, suggesting this strength would feed into the international market in the coming year.
Mauruc said there had been consistent growing sales appetite for arthouse film over the last two years, even if this had yet to translate into strong international box office returns.
“On positive side, the appetite and desire is there, and the results we’re seeing in France should stimulate things in the longer term,” she added.
She noted that the healthy domestic box office runs of indie films such as Holy Cow (Vingt Dieux) and Souleymane’s Story, which have grossed $4.4M and $3.7M respectively, were being closely tracked by buyers.
Both Nahas and Mauruc welcomed the return of Germany as a key market for French cinema.
“Two or three years ago it was really hard to sell films to Germany and now it’s dynamic,” said Mauruc.
Nahas noted, however, that Asia had become more complicated, with animation continuing to work well, while French arthouse fare struggled in the region.
“Vietnam was the fourth biggest export territory for our film The Jungle Bunch 2: World Tour but it remains more difficult for festival driven titles aimed at older spectators which have yet to return to the theaters,” he said.
“In Japan, for example, which was always an important market for France, we’re selling less and less, and the films perform less and less… we’ll see how this region develops.”
Beyond the box office, Unifrance also looked at the performance of French film productions in the top 10 film festivals, defined as BAFICI, Berlinale, Busan, Cannes, Locarno, Rotterdam, San Sebastián, Sundance, Toronto and Venice.
It noted France was the top nation in terms of participating in these festivals, premiering 253 movies which accounted for 22.8% of the selection of these events.
“France is first everywhere with the exception of two North American events, with the United Kingdom coming out on top at Sundance and the U.S. leading the selection in Toronto,” noted the report.
Unifrance also attempted to gauge the presence of French productions on international streaming platforms, looking at the number of titles available on platforms outside of the domestic market, rather than the viewing figures which are rarely made available.
The report said France came in fifth in terms of the number of its works available on international streaming platforms in 2024, accounting for 3.8% of the total offering, and in third place for non-English-language production globally.
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