After disappointing results in 2016, 2017 is shaping up to be a more successful year for French films in terms of audience numbers in international theaters.
Unifrance has announced that as at September 4, 2017, French films have already surpassed the 40 million admissions mark in theaters outside France, which is equivalent to the figure registered for the whole of 2016.
These encouraging results can be attributed to the strong performance of films of very varied styles and genres, spread across many different markets:
- Leap has achieved particularly good results in Spanish-language markets, with 1.2 million admissions registered in Spain and over 1 million in Mexico.
- Two is a Family has attracted more than 1 million spectators in Italy and 900,000 in Germany.
- Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets enjoyed a successful launch in China, with 10.8 million spectators recorded after two weeks in theaters.
- I Am Not Your Negro has won over 850,000 moviegoers in the USA.
- Elle is building on its international success, with an outstanding debut in Japan: it registered around 35,830 admissions in its opening week in Tokyo, where it was released in 13 theaters. This success spurred its distributors on to include an additional 11 screens.
The figures detailing the performance of French films in international theatres in 2017 will be released by UniFrance at the time of the 20th edition of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris, to be held in January 2018.
