The summer ends in a blaze of glory for French films abroad! With Lucy scaling the charts and the excellent performances of Serial (Bad) Weddings, French cinema is in possession of its great success stories of 2014.
| Rank | Title | No. of Admissions | B.O. Revenues | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total admissions |
| 1 | Lucy | 18,554,733 | €116,383,583 | 7,453 | 28 | 26,342,489 |
| 2 | Serial (Bad) Weddings | 1,985,834 | €14,466,124 | 1023 | 12 | 3,226,987 |
| 3 | Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants | 948,196 | €3,760,417 | 1,867 | 7 | 1,770,772 |
| 4 | Nicholas on Holiday | 516,908 | €2,449,960 | 473 | 8 | 721,760 |
| 5 | The Volcano | 160,890 | €1,054,712 | 300 | 6 | 606,742 |
| 6 | Une rencontre | 145,103 | €941,303 | 336 | 7 | 272,804 |
| 7 | Attila Marcel | 83,231 | €454,170 | 56 | 2 | 163,657 |
| 8 | Yves Saint Laurent | 78,211 | €483,267 | 39 | 3 | 784,742 |
| 9 | Mood Indigo | 51,313 | €371,733 | 74 | 3 | 642,290 |
| 10 | Barbecue | 49,065 | €304,683 | 103 | 2 | 146,741 |
| 11 | French Women | 44,734 | €262,769 | 45 | 3 | 111,899 |
| 12 | The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet | 36,873 | €264,664 | 148 | 4 | 270,653 |
| 13 | The Past | 24,346 | €83,710 | 42 | 5 | 794,328 |
| 14 | Superchondriac | 22,952 | €103,235 | 70 | 2 | 1,012,674 |
| 15 | In the Courtyard | 20,788 | €125,895 | 38 | 2 | 27,215 |
| 16 | Violette | 16,631 | €69,557 | 52 | 4 | 96,503 |
| 17 | Diplomacy | 15,430 | €117,834 | 96 | 3 | 52,690 |
| 18 | The Finishers | 12,679 | €112,254 | NC | 1 | 31,826 |
| 19 | The Well Digger's Daughter | 11,885 | €41,593 | 17 | 1 | 199,265 |
| 20 | Blood Ties | 10,571 | €76,712 | 56 | 3 | 90,272 |
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During August 2014, 6 French films attracted more than 100,000 spectators in theaters abroad. 2 films added more than a million spectators to their total admissions during the month.
After its historic launch on the other side of the Atlantic at the end of July, Lucy has followed up with exceptional performances around the world. Only two years after Taken 2, this EuropaCorp production is already on the threshold of entering the top 3 results ever recorded for a French film on the international scene.
Serial (Bad) Weddings continues to appeal to an ever increasing audience in Germany and maintains an excellent admissions level in many territories, week after week.
Thanks to its release in China, Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants became the 12th French film to cross the million-spectator mark abroad in 2014. More good news reaches us from South Korea, where Attila Marcel created a surprise at the local box office. As for Yves Saint Laurent, the film has got off to a very encouraging start in Québec.
Spotlight on a selection of standout majority French film titles in August 2014
Lucy crossed the threshold of 25 million admissions abroad at the end of August! Rising to first place at the box office during the week of its release in Spain (Universal – 380,000 admissions), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais – 110,000 admissions), New Zealand (Paramount – 77,000 admissions), and Peru (UIP – 100,000 admissions), Lucy had accumulated 26.3 million admissions in 28 international territories by the end of summer, and became the 4th greatest success recorded by Unifrance for a French film outside France! The film has overtaken the 23 million admissions racked up by Amelie, and the 32 million admissions of Taken, a film in a similar category, are already within its sights. The powerhouse film of 2014 was yet to be released in twenty other territories during September.
Earlier in the month, Lucy had registered the 4th best launch of all time in Taiwan (United International Pictures), with TWD38 million in revenues on the first day of its release (being about 146,000 admissions). By the end of the month, the film, of which half takes place in Taiwan, had clocked up more than a million admissions in the territory. This is a genuine feat and an absolute record for a French film on the island, already overtaking Taken 2 (Fox) and its 705,000 admissions gathered throughout its career.
In Turkey (UIP), Lucy had a total of almost 600,000 admissions after 3 weeks in the theaters and already represents the best French performance ahead of… The Fifth Element (Umut Sanat Filmcilik and its 447,000 spectators in 1997. The film was also at the top of the box office in Poland (UIP – 438,000 spectators), the United Kingdom (Universal – 1.2 million), and in Germany (Universal – 1.3 million) by the end of August 2014.
Almost 6 weeks after its release, Serial (Bad) Weddings held its place among the top 3 films at the German box office (Neue Visionen) and had crossed the 2-million admissions mark! With a print run that increased from 224 upon its launch to 719 by the end of August, the film has now been seen by 2 million German spectators. The results of Welcome to the Land of Ch'tis in 2008 (Prokino Filmverleih – 2.3 million admissions) were hence within its reach by the end of summer. In Austria (Filmladen), the film is on the brink of 300,000 admissions, a figure only The Intouchables (Constantin Film – 763,000 admissions) has overtaken since the beginning of 2000. Farther away from French borders, the film attracted 6,500 admissions in Kazakhstan, where the film has been running in 2 theaters for 10 weeks!
Serial (Bad) Weddings had achieved a total of 3.2 million admissions abroad by the end of August. It will soon overtake the international results of another great French comedy success: The Dinner Game and its 3.6 million spectators at the end of the 1990s.
Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants rose to 5th place at the Chinese box office (China Film Corporation) by the end of its opening week. With 760,000 admissions accumulated in 10 days, the film from the Futurikon studio has achieved the greatest success of a French animation film in Chinese theaters, overtaking Arthur and the Invisibles (Domo Media – 600,000 admissions in 2007). By the end of August, it had achieved the fifth best results for a French film released in 2014 in China, where admissions for French films have already reached 9 million, of which 5.8 million have been for the minority production Brick Mansions. Minuscule had doubled its international admissions (1.8 million spectators by the end of August) and had become the 12th French film with a million admissions abroad in 2014 (compared with 11 in 2012 and 10 in 2013).
Attila Marcel created a surprise in South Korea (Challan), where the film had been seen by a total of 127,000 spectators from fifty screens by the end of the 5th weekend of its run. The film maintained its place among the top 10 films in South Korea for some time, and has overtaken the results registered by The Artist (Jinjin Pictures), which ended its career in 2012 with 120,000 admissions. Attila Marcel had recorded 164,000 admissions abroad by the end of August. With 1.5 million spectators in South Korea since the beginning of 2014, French cinema is guaranteed to outdo the more timid performances of 2011 and 2013 in this market, which continues to be more focused on blockbuster releases and local productions.
Yves Saint Laurent launched well in Quebec theaters. Distributed by Les Films Séville, the film generated almost CAD150,000 in revenues, being 17,000 admissions from 13 prints. This is a fine performance and the second best spectator average per print in this territory this week. The film had attracted 25,000 spectators by the end of August. Yves Saint Laurent had a total of 785,000 spectators by the end of summer in 21 territories, of which 133,000 in Germany (Leonine (Universum)), 105,000 in Italy (Lucky Red), 76,000 in the USA (The Weinstein Company), 66,000 in Belgium and the United Kingdom (Entertainment One (UK)), and 44,000 in Poland (Vue Movie) and Brazil (Paris Filmes).
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