In August, a sci-fi title passed the 25 million admissions mark abroad and an action film made a strong debut in Italy.
This month, a majority-French production, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, registered over 14 million admissions in international theaters.
| # | Title | Admissions | Box Office Revenues (€) | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total Admissions |
| 1 | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | 14,408,382 | 69,012,147 | 21,585 | 37 | 19,950,366 |
| 2 | Overdrive | 307,686 | 1,920,099 | 693 | 11 | 717,785 |
| 3 | Alibi.com | 130,952 | 816,182 | 429 | 4 | 290,928 |
| 4 | Back to Burgundy | 127,917 | 1,029,708 | 222 | 6 | 182,025 |
| 5 | Amant double | 96,387 | 581,806 | 135 | 5 | 133,568 |
| 6 | The Midwife | 87,852 | 584,182 | 198 | 11 | 286,038 |
| 7 | À bras ouverts | 76,523 | 382,355 | 76 | 3 | 258,167 |
| 8 | Two is a Family | 70,069 | 399,477 | 244 | 9 | 4,801,013 |
| 9 | R.A.I.D. Special Unit | 64,847 | 272,418 | 115 | 2 | 433,367 |
| 10 | A Bag of Marbles | 54,026 | 364,981 | 105 | 5 | 291,924 |
| 11 | The Jungle Bunch (The Movie) | 46,775 | 232,765 | 197 | 5 | 94,537 |
| 12 | Mr & Mrs Adelman | 42,209 | 191,913 | 35 | 2 | 151,120 |
| 13 | Fifty Springtimes | 39,414 | 242,497 | 67 | 2 | 80,093 |
| 14 | Lost in Paris | 39,084 | 234,693 | 85 | 10 | 175,656 |
| 15 | Jour J | 31,212 | 129,297 | 6 | 3 | 117,584 |
| 16 | Elle | 29,580 | 274,711 | 34 | 3 | 1,508,607 |
| 17 | Agnus Dei / The Innocents | 28,556 | 256,109 | 11 | 3 | 675,229 |
| 18 | Kalinka | 27,853 | 91,186 | 70 | 3 | 190,943 |
| 19 | Frantz | 26,682 | 107,811 | 64 | 9 | 827,018 |
| 20 | Heaven Will Wait | 23,325 | 65,630 | 46 | 2 | 79,079 |
The podium for the top results for French films in August 2017 remains virtually unchanged compared to that of July.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets hit Chinese screens on August 25, where it achieved its most successful international debut to date. A staggering number of prints was released, with the film screened at around 13,000 sites (almost one third of all movie theaters in China!). It garnered 10.9 million spectators and registered €46 million in ticket sales after 10 days. Due to these excellent results, it now ranks as the most popular French film of all time in China, according to UniFrance data. It thus outscores the previous record holder, another Luc Besson film, Lucy, which registered 7.14 million admissions in 2014. Also released in Russia this month, Valerian has attracted considerable attention in Russia, where it pulled in 2.8 million spectators, with 1,565 prints in circulation throughout the CIS, becoming the third most successful French film since perestroika. It is also worth noting the 1.74 million admissions generated by the film in Mexico, as well as its high score in Germany, where it has topped the million admissions mark. In August, Valerian clocked up 14.4 million admissions and €69 million in box office takings, to reach a running total of 25.3 million admissions and €133.4 million to date, proving once again its status as the top performing French film of 2017, even if its results fall short of expectations, considering the ambitions and budget for the production.
Overdrive retains 2nd place in our monthly charts thanks to its launch in Italy. After a lack of new titles released on Italian screens in the early part of the summer, the supply of films picked up, with Overdrive sitting at number 2 at the box office in August, preceded only by the blockbuster Despicable Me 3. Screened at 259 sites, it pulled in 92,000 spectators and took €608,000 in its opening week, with initial reports on its second week indicating a continuation of this positive momentum. Overdrive also registered €945,000 in the Benelux countries (representing around 123,000 admissions) and showed strong appeal in Russia, where it recorded 212,000 admissions and achieved the 3rd best performance for a French film in Russia this year, behind Valerian and Two is a Family.
Only a few thousand admissions separate the films at 3rd and 4th place. These films share the fact that they were both released in Germany in August and that they have both achieved their best results abroad to date in this market. 93,000 German moviegoers went out to see Alibi.com (€672,000 in ticket sales), while 102,500 people opted for Back to Burgundy (€804,500). Although their admissions scores are similar, the number of theaters deployed in each case is very different: 306 sites for Alibi.com versus 102 sites for Back to Burgundy. Alibi.com thus had the potential to register a far higher score, while the success of Back to Burgundy prompted its distributors to raise the number of prints in circulation in its second week. And finally, the film at 5th place, Amant double, achieved these strong results thanks largely to its release in Poland in August, where it registered 50,500 admissions and took €220,000, released on 80 screens. This stands out as the best score registered to date for a film by François Ozon in Poland.
