French films at the international box office: April 2021

My Donkey, My Lover & I is the film with the highest attendance figures in this period, while only four other titles attracted more than 10,000 spectators outside France.

#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Box Office Revenues (€)
1	My Donkey, My Lover & I	31,201	270,292	53	5	136,656	1,167,416
2	The Vets	18,920	110,995	114	1	36,941	287,515
3	The Translators	15,093	92,677	135	3	340,549	2,232,876
4	Mama Weed	10,403	61,957	128	3	212,349	1,698,161
5	Les Misérables	8,524	51,918	97	1	697,680	4,797,042
6	Under the Stars of Paris	4,837	28,021	74	2	5,940	39,697
7	Love Affair(s)	4,546	29,448	21	2	9,147	68,969
8	Bye Bye Morons	2,637	32,645	17	2	31,700	301,480
9	Cuban Network	1,629	17,230	29	1	63,469	287,043
10	Only the Animals	1,604	11,082	12	3	35,707	271,827

For more than a year, the pandemic has been impacting the movie industry worldwide. In March 2020, announcements of cinema closures came one after the other, on all continents. More than a year later, the majority of markets are still closed, but mapping reveals very different situations across the planet.

Australia and New Zealand are the exception, because, despite certain governmental measures still in force, cinemas are open throughout both countries, with capacity ranging from 75% to 100%, and every Thursday new films enrich the slate. The Asian markets seem less effervescent than at the beginning of the year, due to the tightening of measures (South Korea) and new temporary closures (Cambodia, India, and Thailand). While exhibition activity has picked up in Latin America, shutters have come down once again in a large part of the subcontinent. Screens in North America have mainly been filled with Oscar nominees, while the studios play it safe and wait for the summer season, which is good for box office in that part of the world, to present their blockbusters. The situation is stable in Africa and in the Near and Middle East, with cinemas still open (Gulf states, Egypt), but others not at all in play (Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco). In Europe, Italian, Portuguese, and Swiss moviegoers can again go to the cinema under certain conditions, and not in a homogeneous way in all countries. These first steps will be imitated in May, when a large part of the European markets should be able to start again, such as Denmark and Hungary (but only those with a vaccination certificate or a negative Covid test will be admitted to the cinema), and the United Kingdom and Poland, while measures should be relaxed in Scandinavia.

We must not forget that a first phase of reopening already took place during last summer: in spite of the strict measures implemented and a traditional seasonal drop in attendance, it proved that the public wants to rediscover the pleasure of going to the cinema.

The reopening of French cinemas will result in the launch of new titles, which are becoming increasingly rare outside the country's borders. Their absence has had a strong impact on the place of French cinema internationally, but it will now be able to return to the forefront again.

The majority-French coproduction with the highest attendance figures in April 2020 was My Donkey, My Lover & I, taking advantage of two successful launches. In Australia, after several months of previews, the comedy arrived on about twenty screens and generated an average of AU$7,000 per print (about 500 admissions), the strongest performance of the week it released. At the end of April, the film passed the AU$700,000 mark and 50,000 admissions, the most promising debut for a French-language drama in Australia since The Truth in 2019. My Donkey continues its great momentum in Quebec: CA$101,000 and 10,000 tickets have already been tallied. Currently, it holds the title of the most viewed majority-French production in 2021 (70,000 viewers).

Three other films attracted 10,000 moviegoers outside France. Once again, the Spanish market offered the strongest welcome to French films and new titles have been lighting up the screens. In April, Mama Weed and The Vets managed to attract more than 10,000 moviegoers in their first week of release. As for The Translators, it continues to charm Spaniards and has now sold 43,000 tickets, the highest total for a majority-French production since last summer in Spain.

Despite the challenging situation at this time, around 120 French productions were screened in international theaters in April 2021, generating 860,0000 admissions and €5.1 million in ticket sales. Admissions for French films jumped compared to March and are up 70%, making April the top month for admissions since the beginning of the year! However, this increase must be put into perspective, as it is due to the success of a single film, the Oscar-winning The Father. The minority-Franco-British coproduction was released in more than twenty foreign markets on five continents, where it was responsible for 665,000 admissions, i.e. three out of four spectators attending French films in April. The drama will pass the million admissions mark in May. The Italian-French Pinocchio was scheduled in more than ten territories and added 57,000 tickets to its long career, which will soon reach 2 million admissions.

Although majority-French productions are once again attracting more than 100,000 spectators, they are nevertheless showing signs of distress because, since January, the symbolic threshold of 200,000 admissions has never been crossed. Their share, initially one third of the total, has been drastically reduced to 13%. The new releases that will accompany the reopening of French cinemas will then take the international route, where new French titles are scarce.

Market distribution by genre has changed compared to previous months. While drama has maintained its leadership with an overwhelming 80.5% share, particularly thanks to The Father, comedy is back in the limelight (three films in the top five on this month's chart) and accounted for 9% of the month's admissions, followed by fantasy films with 7% (Pinocchio).

--> This report can be downloaded in PDF format below
(French version only).

This report is based on results recorded on May 6, 2021. Since our statistics for film releases are continuously updated, the graphics generated automatically on our website will differ from the chart featured in this article.