French films at the international box office: March 2016

04 MAY 2016

The month of March saw German audiences charmed by a French drama, while an award-winning French title from the recent Venice Film Festival enjoyed a successful debut in Italy and Quebec. The British market also reported good news, with a string of French-language productions making a promising start in theaters.

This month, three majority-French productions registered over 100,000 admissions in theaters outside France.

#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions
1	A Sense of Wonder	263,198	1,957,491	247	3	266,358
2	Mustang	242,849	1,670,989	465	21	643,149
3	The Little Prince	149,152	822,116	339	11	17,886,195
4	Marguerite	99,249	708,565	301	8	314,193
5	Agnus Dei / The Innocents (The Innocents)	92,566	495,163	163	4	94,568
6	Courted	89,096	570,160	80	3	113,676
7	Good Guys Go to Heaven, Bad Guys Go to Pattaya	80,094	625,310	75	3	129,798
8	Mon roi	62,759	437,193	151	8	245,736
9	Un moment d'égarement	62,558	409,139	203	1	450,984
10	Tomorrow	58,157	503,208	62	2	226,332
11	The Tuche - The American Dream	56,816	416,555	39	2	326,022
12	Lolo	49,169	378,259	198	4	142,951
13	Babysitting 2	41,430	190,861	90	1	475,589
14	Monsieur Chocolat	40,685	500,571	55	5	141,628
15	Irreplaceable	36,417	302,512	37	2	36,417
16	Blind Date	33,363	87,603	47	3	98 839
17	Disorder	25,873	218,382	57	2	28 709
18	The Three of Us	22,977	141,497	56	2	52 283
19	Seasons	19,477	155,440	147	4	458 857
20	Francofonia	19,209	115,429	144	4	71 281

March has marked a new triumph for French cinema at the German box office. After picking up the Audience award at Tübingen, and bolstered by a robust publicity campaign of preview screenings held in the presence of the film's director and lead actor, A Sense of Wonder attracted strong audiences of just under 70,000 spectators in 104 theaters in its opening week. By the end of March, this film, which was retitled in Germany as Birnenkuchen mit Lavendel (Pear Cake with Lavender), had amassed almost 200,000 admissions, thus standing out as a new success story for the distributor of Serial (Bad) Weddings (3.9 million admissions), Paulette (592,000), and, more recently, Héritiers (119,000).

Winner of the Best Actor and Best Screenplay Awards at the Venice International Film Festival, Courted was eagerly-awaited in Italian theaters. Released in around fifty theaters, it registered 45,000 spectators in its first two weeks, jumping to 2nd place in the local box office Top 20. The film by Christian Vincent also enjoyed an excellent debut in Quebec. Launched on 13 screens, it took over CAD$200,000 in three weeks, with around 23,000 tickets sold.

Marguerite began its run in the United Kingdom in March. Released on 42 screens at its high point, it garnered around 25,000 admissions in two weeks. This is an encouraging score in a market in which foreign-language productions currently have a tough time making their mark. At the end of March, Xavier Giannoli's film posted a running total of over 310,000 admissions in around twenty foreign markets, including 37,000 admissions in Germany and more than 30,000 in both Belgium and the USA.

Disorder also got off to a dynamic start in the UK in March. Released in 51 theaters—the most ambitious release for a French-language film in this market since the beginning of the year—it took over £110,000 in ticket sales in its opening week, for around 16,500 admissions. This earned the film a place in the local box office Top 20, with results that are more than respectable considering this difficult market. By the end of the month, it joined Marguerite as one the two most successful French-language films in the UK in 2016.