French films at the international box office: June 2021

Bye Bye Morons is the film with the highest attendance figures in June 2021 while 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 B.O. Revenues
1	Bye Bye Morons	25,918	208,049	116	5	76,303	724,886
2	Summer of 85	18,655	112,875	135	6	131,578	862,063
3	Mandibles	12,451	84,018	255	6	14,735	110,343
4	A Friendly Tale	12,128	74,210	119	2	78,731	444,169
5	Perfumes	10,206	59,601	55	3	53,225	335,521
6	Mama Weed	9,937	86,598	48	5	250,334	2,010,310
7	Gaza mon amour	9,481	55,418	55	1	9,481	55,418
8	The man who sold his skin	8,906	36,600	249	3	10,352	50,622
9	The Kids Are Back	8,777	69,556	84	3	8,777	69,556
10	Yakari, A Spectacular Journey	8,279	61,385	195	5	248,383	1,964,351

The long-awaited reopening of theaters in many countries has finally allowed French films whose releases had been canceled and postponed to at last connect with their audience. The French international titles on offer in June were composed of films released during the second half of 2020, such as Bye Bye Morons, Summer of 85, or Yakari, A Spectacular Journey, and new titles that are starting their careers outside our borders just after their national premiere, such as The Kids Are Back and Mandibles.

Mandibles

But which markets are they facing?

Although many governments have allowed the resumption of theatrical screenings, constraints related to health and safety and the summer season are being felt. Summer is traditionally the golden season for Hollywood blockbusters and studios are counting on it to boost box office. Disney, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. titles, which were virtually absent for nine months in 2020, are back at a rate of two films per week and are capturing the largest share of the audience and monopolizing hundreds of screens in countries where theaters are in operation. How to compete with such heavyweights?

Unfortunately, the resumption of activities does not mean a return to normal: although Argentina, Colombia, Ireland, Latvia, and Morocco (after being shuttered for fifteen months!) joined the list of countries where it is possible to see a movie in theaters, we notice new closures of theaters in South Africa, India, Tunisia, and certain regions of Australia and Russia because of the resurgence of the pandemic in these territories. For this reason, with the exception of the
United Kingdom, the relaxation of measures, which was initially mentioned, has been postponed to a later date in many countries. In addition, projectors are still off in many Asian territories and Peru.

The majority-French production that garnered the most admissions internationally in June 2021 was Bye Bye Morons. The comedy-drama relied on several successful releases, and not just one as has been the case for several films in recent months, to reach the top. In Quebec, it was the first French title exceeding CA$100,000 in box office revenues (11,000 moviegoers) during its first week of release since late February 2020, and easily reached the local top 10. The latest film by Albert Dupontel accompanied the reopening of Belgian theaters and added 10,000 admissions to those generated in October 2020, for a total of 24,000. Finally, after being presented at the Alliance Française French Film Festival, Bye Bye Morons arrived in Australian cinemas and garnered AU$177,500, being more than 12,000 tickets sold.

Four other films appealed to more than 10,000 moviegoers outside France, three less than in May. Two of them, Summer of 85 and Mandibles, were released in six foreign territories. François Ozon's latest film attracted nearly 10,000 Italians, more than 4,000 Americans, and 3,000 Poles, while Quentin Dupieux's new feature delighted 3,500 Italians, 3,000 Belgians, and 3,000 Russians. The transalpine market also welcomed Perfumes (10,000 admissions) and A Friendly Tale (3,500); the latter title was more popular in Spain (8,500).The European continent confirmed itself as the leading market for predominantly French productions: they attracted 40,000 spectators in Italy, 35,000 in Belgium, and 27,000 in Spain. Meanwhile, the United States is renewing interest in heritage films: released at the end of May, La Piscine / The Swimming Pool generated more $100,000 and 11,000 admissions!

Despite the current context, in June 2021, more than 170 French productions hit international screens, generating 2.14 million admissions and €11.4 million in ticket sales.

The attendance figures for French cinema jumped to over one million admissions for the first time in 2021! This feat deserves to be closely observed, however, as two out of three admissions were generated by three minority productions released in China and which shared 1.5 million admissions almost equally: Cinema Paradiso, previously unreleased, Pinocchio, and The Father. Among the remaining 640,000 spectators for French films in June, minority productions once again took the lion's share thanks to The Father. On the other hand, majority productions had to make do with 236,000 admissions, a score in line with that of May and the best of the year. As for their share of the monthly total, which had risen last month to 25%, it has now dropped to 11%. The top 10 at the bottom of the page shows five films exceeding 10,000 admissions, as many as in January and one more than in February, March, and April, while there were eight in May. The new theater reopenings around the world and the fresh starts and releases that result from them will certainly allow French cinema to be revived by circulating new titles, but, as far as majority productions are concerned, we are still waiting for the film that will manage to impose itself on several different markets and set the box office alight.

The division of admissions between film genres follows the pattern of previous months, although the market share has evolved. Dramas continue to lead, but their share dropped from 75% to 44%, while comedies doubled (29%) and were closely followed by fantasy films (24%), which returned to the top three. All other genres did not reach 2%.

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

This report is based on results recorded on July 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.