French films at the international box office: May 2015

02 JULY 2015

In the month of May, French animated films reached a wide international audience. Two auteur films crossed a symbolic threshold across the Atlantic, while a hit comedy continued its strong performance in foreign theaters.

Seven majority French productions attracted over 100,000 spectators outside France in May, with six of these titles French-language productions.


#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions
1	The Bélier Family	651,435	4,025,977	867	19	2,748,724
2	Mune	303,748	1,036,534	1,497	3	613,264
3	Asterix - The Mansion of the Gods	237,288	1,467,446	624	13	2,768,987
4	The Salt of the Earth	204,801	1,135,141	235	14	1,152,721
5	Beauty and the Beast	198,385	290,567	175	5	5,953,319
6	Clouds of Sils Maria	196,811	1,559,810	271	8	681,638
7	Samba	148,754	1,100,418	376	13	1,873,838
8	Song of the Sea	113,305	454,759	223	3	239,579
9	Dior and I	107,537	837,589	154	6	283,600
10	Serial (Bad) Weddings	96,888	374,229	82	10	9,162,475
11	Turist	81,533	551,661	142	6	598,503
12	Not My Type	68,082	411,035	94	1	123,230
13	The New Girlfriend	63,750	473,764	122	8	223,644
14	Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants	61,633	301,370	157	5	2,372,483
15	Why I Did (Not) Eat My Father (3D)	54,600	456,168	146	5	177,572
16	Saint Laurent	53,638	390,557	43	3	166,093
17	Moomins on The Riviera	50,492	442,207	384	4	242,894
18	Timbuktu	48,499	303,075	86	12	614,691
19	Wolf Totem	47,649	188,155	157	4	719,318
20	Do Not Disturb	47,305	367,865	237	3	191,227

Clouds of Sils Maria This month, Clouds of Sils Maria topped the million dollar mark in the USA and English-speaking Canada. With close to 200,000 admissions to its credit ($1.6 million) after 7 weeks in theaters, the film by Olivier Assayas is the third majority French production in the "auteur" category to have achieved this feat in 2015, after Timbuktu ($1.1 million, 130,000 admissions) and The Salt of the Earth (140,000 admissions registered at the end of May in this market). If we also include Taken 3 (10.9 million admissions), this makes a total of four majority French productions that have reached $1 million at the North American box office since the beginning of the year. This is an encouraging sign for French cinema across the Atlantic, considering that in 2014 only two films, The Past (Sony – 163,000 admissions) and Lucy (Universal – 15.5 million admissions), reached such heights.

MuneMune was released on 1,492 prints in Russia at the end of May, which is the highest number of prints released in this territory in more than twenty years, according to Unifrance statistics. It registered 300,000 spectators in its opening week, marking an excellent score for an animated film in Russia, and follows in the tracks of recent performances of films such as Yellowbird (335,000 admissions with a maximum of 1,000 prints released).

This month also saw Beauty and the Beast enjoying a new lease of life in Latin America. Released in Venezuela in 33 theaters, the film by Christophe Gans sat at 4th place at the box office and raked in over 106,000 admissions in one month. This film has already won over more than 1 million Mexicans, as well as 513,000 moviegoers in Brazil and 128,000 in Peru.

The Bélier Family May proved a prosperous month for The Bélier Family in international theaters. It was a surprise hit in Taiwan, where it was released on 14 screens in Taipei and five other cities, attracting over 5,300 spectators in its opening weekend—a very successful debut for a French-language film in this market. In Quebec, it is holding strong after three weeks on the screens, currently totaling 88,000 at the end of May, with a maximum of 49 prints released during this time. This ranks the film as the third most successful title in Quebec since the beginning of 2015.