French films at the international box office: November 2021

The Wolf and the Lion was the film that was most seen in theaters in November 2021, with one other title, Eiffel, also attracting more than 100,000 spectators outside France.

#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions
1	The Wolf and the Lion	326,453	1 642 198	704	10	394,947
2	Eiffel	105,191	776 869	615	10	259,353
3	Aline, the Voice of Love	88,059	707 689	424	8	88,059
4	Pil	72,490	220 744	853	2	75,771
5	Petite Maman	48,167	369 517	171	6	102,029
6	Annette	43,837	265 629	276	11	276,419
7	Happening	30,994	187 859	69	2	30,994
8	Titane	25,675	224,003	196	14	335,993
9	Délicieux	24,790	179,559	145	2	84,524
10	Benedetta	19,881	149,359	126	8	125,112
11	My Son	15,495	62,396	215	6	151,478
12	Around the World in 80 Days	15,045	148,607	228	8	618,174
13	Little Nicholas' Treasure	11,273	104,071	53	2	26,175
14	The Rose Maker	9,381	60,654	84	6	144,177
15	#Iamhere	8,927	30,710	73	3	77,611
16	Paris, 13th District	8,755	79,802	55	3	8,755
17	Black Box	7,949	65,171	33	5	59,031
18	Bergman Island	7,841	58,985	103	8	31,233
19	Lost Illusions	7,464	79,898	26	3	16,329
20	Perfumes	6,404	23,387	37	4	122,807

While Europe is in the grip of a new wave of the pandemic, the appearance of a new variant is pushing governments to tighten up the measures in force, which, needless to say, have had an impact on movie theaters. The countries that have made the most drastic changes, i.e. the national closure of cinemas, are Austria and Slovakia. In The Netherlands, cinemas cannot operate after 5 pm. The wearing of masks in cinemas is once again compulsory in Belgium and Hungary. Only spectators with a health pass proving double vaccination can go to theaters in Catalonia and Croatia. In Romania, in addition to the two above-mentioned measures, seating capacity has been reduced to 30%, while Germany is further restricting admission to theaters according to the "2G plus" plan (access reserved for vaccinated spectators also in possession of a negative rapid test). The approach across the world differs widely: Colombian and South Korean exhibitors require spectators to present a double vaccination pass, as do cinema operators in Los Angeles. On the other hand, cinemas in Auckland, New Zealand, which have been closed since mid-August, can finally reopen to the public. Overall attendance has been strained by the new restrictions, and the month of December, which was eagerly awaited to replenish the box office during the holiday season, has not got underway as expected.

Audience figures for French cinema dropped by 29% compared to October, but more than one million admissions were registered, and this for the sixth time in 2021. The number of films exhibited increased significantly; however, the number of releases and the average number of viewers per title fell slightly. The impact of the new restrictions announced above is already visible. The market share of minority-French productions, the main protagonists of the first half of 2021, represented in November in particular by The Worst Person in the World and The Father, was further reduced in favor of majority-French productions, which accounted for 84% of admissions generated by French films. In terms of spoken language, the success of The Wolf and the Lion saw the share of foreign-language productions soar to 45% of the monthly score. The erosion of French-language productions continued: their contribution dropped from three out of four admissions in September to two out of three in October, then to one out of two in November.

The top three titles included two films that each attracted more than 100,000 moviegoers, one of which attracted more than 300,000! Majority-French productions lost ground and posted results below those of October: 13 attracted more than 10,000 spectators (-10), nine more than 20,000 (-5), four more than 50,000 (-2) and two more than 100,000 (-1). Nevertheless, these figures are in keeping with those recorded in August and the films attracted more spectators than during the first seven months of 2021.

The breakdown by genre continued changing. Adventure/thrillers were the leading genre, accounting for nearly one in three international admissions for French cinema in November. Drama and comedy maintained their place on the podium, each attracting more than 20% of monthly viewers. With the exception of biopics/war/history, the market share of the other genres was below 10%.

The Wolf and the Lion was hands down the top film of November. Highly awaited after the worldwide success of Mia and the White Lion and its 4.52 million admissions outside France, Gilles De Maistre's latest film launched in 10 markets and claimed a place in the top five rankings in Spain, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic during its opening week. It even moved to second place in Lithuania and Poland. It has already sold more than 100,000 tickets in Spain (130,000) and Poland (123,000), and has become the most popular French production of 2021 in many Eastern European countries.

Eiffel made its first appearance on the podium with 35,000 tickets in Spain and 31,000 in Germany, as well as 69,000 spectators in Oceania, and 62,000 in Benelux.
Aline, the Voice of Love benefitted from the third largest release reserved for a French film in Quebec since 1995 (90 theaters) and took third place at the local box office thanks to nearly 30,000 admissions during its opening week .
Pil confirmed once again Russian moviegoers' interest in French animation (72,000 admissions).
British and Irish spectators renewed their passion for French auteur films by giving a warm welcome to Petite Maman (30,000 admissions).
As many Italians came out to see Happening: the film began its career in Italy, where it was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and reached 10th place in the local rankings.
Annette, Benedetta, and Titane continued to appeal to foreign filmgoers, and Délicieux managed to attract 24,000 Germans despite the restrictions currently in force in the country.

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This report is based on results recorded on December 8, 2021. Since our statistics for film releases are continuously being updated, the graphics generated automatically on our website will differ from the chart featured in this article.