In January, a period drama enjoyed a success Spain, a second period drama caused a sensation in South Korea, while a comedy appealed to audiences in The Netherlands and Russia.
| # | Title | No. of Admissions | Box Office Revenues (€) | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total Admissions |
| 1 | An Officer and a Spy | 344,662 | 2,056,312 | 377 | 9 | 1,023,141 |
| 2 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire | 231,364 | 1,545,508 | 559 | 19 | 713,712 |
| 3 | The Specials | 186,920 | 1,274,578 | 606 | 14 | 526,502 |
| 4 | Serial Bad Weddings 2 | 164,199 | 1,029,294 | 348 | 3 | 3,641,409 |
| 5 | La Belle Epoque | 142,713 | 953,640 | 344 | 21 | 647,830 |
| 6 | Les Misérables | 125,981 | 982,829 | 314 | 14 | 223,736 |
| 7 | Spread Your Wings | 98,603 | 550,925 | 498 | 3 | 168,129 |
| 8 | The Mystery of Henri Pick | 92,352 | 645,409 | 199 | 8 | 491,851 |
| 9 | The Truth | 82,124 | 604,662 | 220 | 13 | 478,805 |
| 10 | It Must Be Heaven | 67,782 | 428,090 | 175 | 9 | 110,814 |
| 11 | Fahim, the Little Chess Prince | 37,442 | 153,262 | 491 | 2 | 99,170 |
| 12 | The Best is Yet to Come | 36,683 | 258,775 | 81 | 6 | 105,236 |
| 13 | Someone, Somewhere | 27,337 | 170,115 | 144 | 4 | 109,786 |
| 14 | MILF | 26,959 | 107,474 | 289 | 1 | 32,966 |
| 15 | Alice and the Mayor | 22,969 | 147,379 | 68 | 4 | 67,767 |
| 16 | The Translators | 21,712 | 206,103 | 49 | 2 | 38,042 |
| 17 | Proxima | 18,621 | 67,030 | 330 | 4 | 27,700 |
| 18 | Meet The Malawas | 15,564 | 152,102 | 30 | 2 | 29,966 |
| 19 | Deerskin | 13,174 | 52,641 | 53 | 4 | 40,981 |
| 20 | Astérix: The Secret of the Magic Potion | 11,483 | 25,999 | 101 | 2 | 3,456,073 |
In January, French productions generated a total of 2.39 admissions in international theaters (€15.5 million in box office revenues), with majority French productions participating to a 94% level of the monthly result (1.99 million tickets sold and €12.8 million at the box office). Admissions have dropped by 6% compared with December 2019 and by 45% compared with January 2019 (4.41 million spectators), when Astérix: The Secret of the Magic Potion and Mia and the White Lion accumulated 2.3 million tickets by themselves alone. 6 titles gathered together more than 100,000 spectators, 3 less than the previous month, and the top 3 generated 763,000 admissions, compared with 802,000 in December and 928,000 in November. An Officer and a Spy took over 1st place again, The Specials held on to 3rd place, while Portrait of a Lady on Fire regained 2nd position, as it did in October 2019.
Roman Polanski's latest feature once again rose to 1st place in the monthly rankings. On January 1, An Officer and a Spy released in Spain and Greece, achieving in the former the month's best performance for a French film. The title had its widest, second week programmation (154 screens) thanks to a brilliant opening week: 85,500 admissions (€550,000 in box office revenues) and was the only new title to garner more than 500 spectators per screen! Its current status is 179,000 tickets sold a month into its release (€1.12 million). Thanks to its performance in Spain and Greece (34,500 tickets and €231,000), An Officer and a Spy is the first French title to cross the symbolic threshold of one million admissions outside France in 2020 (€6.42 million in earnings)! Since November 2019, this period drama has appealed to 519,000 Italians (€3.23 million), 115,000 Poles (€499,000), 75,000 Israelis (€547,500), 66,000 Belgian and Luxembourg spectators (€497,000), and 30,000 Swiss (€378,000). After Portugal, An Officer and a Spy will continue its international tour in Germany, Austria, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Turkey.
The other sensation of the month occurred in South Korea. Locally, Portrait of a Lady on Fire has already been designated the "artbuster" of the beginning of the year! Céline Sciamma's drama has already racked up more than 100,000 admissions (€530,000), a result than no other French-language title had attained since The Bélier Family in 2015 (122,000 tickets and €743,500). After South Korea, Portrait of a Lady on Fire realized its best results in Germany (87,000 admissions, €685,000), The Netherlands (81,500 admissions, €679,000), and Italy (73,000 admissions, €449,000), without forgetting fine successes in territories where foreign language productions have difficulty finding a niche: 44,000 spectators in Australia (€382,000), 40,000 in Turkey (€100,000), 27,000 in Brazil (€94,000) and Sweden (€266,500), and 26,000 in Norway (€260,000). Buoyed by 714,000 international admissions (€5.04 million) thus far, Portrait of a Lady on Fire will soon take on the Danish, North American, and Thai markets.
As was the case in December, The Specials held on to 3rd place in January's rankings. The comedy received its widest release in Russia, where it was programmed in 273 theaters. During its opening week-end, it was chosen by 33,500 spectators (€161,500 in box office revenues), a result identical to those generated by The Intouchables (2012: 241,000 admissions and €1.36 million in total) and Samba (2015: 55,600 admissions and €239,500 in total) during their opening weekends. The distributor based the release strategy on that for C'est la vie! (2018: 171,000 admissions and €756,500 in 278 theaters), the biggest release for the Nakache-Toledano duo in Russia. Currently, The Specials has the 100,000 admissions mark in its sights in Russia. In Benelux, the film benefitted from the popularity of its two directors to achieve its two best scores abroad to date: 126,500 tickets in The Netherlands (€1.09 million) and 113,500 in Belgium and Luxembourg (€808,500). The comedy, which has already attracted 526,500 spectators outside France (€4 million), is slated for release in Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden.
This analysis is based on results registered on February 6, 2020. As figures are constantly consolidated, the graphic created automatically by the website will differ from the present chart in this article.
