In August 2022, French cinema was represented by 250 films already showing in international theaters and over 110 new releases, registering a total of 1.76 million spectators and generating €11.6 million in ticket sales.
Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 retained its place at the top of our monthly charts in August, garnering over 600,000 admissions abroad.
| # | Title | Admissions | Box Office Revenues (€) | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total Admissions | Total Revenues |
| 1 | Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 | 606,107 | 4,691,692 | 1,351 | 10 | 1,525,979 | 12,060,781 |
| 2 | Pil | 80,014 | 494,157 | 317 | 7 | 870,362 | 4,066,410 |
| 3 | Terra Willy | 52,876 | 170,138 | 1,114 | 1 | 988,681 | 5,099,675 |
| 4 | Natural Born Liar | 51,519 | 325,790 | 905 | 3 | 107,605 | 695,138 |
| 5 | Ogre | 46,707 | 200,472 | 798 | 1 | 46,707 | 200,472 |
| 6 | Maigret | 30,525 | 181,266 | 80 | 7 | 160,827 | 1,110,088 |
| 7 | Final Cut | 29,429 | 138,101 | 740 | 1 | 51,702 | 348,367 |
| 8 | Little Vampire | 29,051 | 93,949 | 909 | 1 | 56,644 | 264,006 |
| 9 | Ducobu président ! | 28,245 | 254,329 | 51 | 2 | 63,708 | 580,274 |
| 10 | The Best Years of a Life | 23,125 | 82,197 | 50 | 2 | 298,942 | 2,030,259 |
| 11 | Lost Illusions | 19,725 | 97,690 | 95 | 10 | 244,136 | 1,664,990 |
| 12 | Arthur Malediction | 18,974 | 145,172 | 257 | 9 | 133,291 | 728,382 |
| 13 | Notre-Dame on Fire | 17,691 | 70,071 | 195 | 3 | 78,519 | 469,796 |
| 14 | Employee of the Month | 17,424 | 106,148 | 190 | 8 | 90,832 | 544,748 |
| 15 | Full Time | 16,927 | 143,820 | 85 | 3 | 60,403 | 480,573 |
| 16 | In Your Hands | 13,507 | 47,707 | 50 | 1 | 384,636 | 2,793,268 |
| 17 | Eiffel | 13,444 | 89,607 | 53 | 5 | 440,687 | 3,172,948 |
| 18 | My Brothers and I | 12,837 | 108,639 | 38 | 2 | 15,628 | 132,371 |
| 19 | Rise | 12,679 | 112,746 | 50 | 3 | 81,726 | 795,270 |
| 20 | Finally Retired! | 12,674 | 78,076 | 51 | 4 | 30,430 | 241,775 |
Box-office results for French films relatively stable in international theaters
French films attracted 1.76 million spectators outside France in August, generating €11.6 million in ticket sales. This marks the fifth most successful month this year in terms of attendance figures, with a drop of 17% compared to July and a rise of 38.6% compared to June. Despite the fact that global admissions to French films remain lower than the level recorded pre-Covid 19, French productions have succeeded in registering 18.2 million movie-goers outside France between January and August 2022: The yearly results for 2020 (16.2 million admissions) and 2021 (17.8 million) have thus been surpassed in the space of eight months.
Europe strengthens its leadership role
Western Europe captured just over one half of all admissions to French films in foreign territories in August (52.2%), a market share slightly lower than in July. Gallic productions registered as many admissions in Central and Eastern Europe as in July (35.1%). The old continent, taken as a whole, is the leading geographic zone for French films in terms of the number of ticket sales (an impressive share of 79.4%!): 4 out of 5 spectators were thus located in this region in August. Unsurprisingly, the four countries that registered more than 100,000 admissions to French films are in this region: the top 3 states are Germany—the number 1 market for the third consecutive month (345,000 spectators)—followed by Russia (253,000) and Poland (240,000), an identical lineup to the month of July. The fourth top-scoring country, Spain, recorded just under 200,000 ticket sales. Outside Europe, no other geographic zone registered over 100,000 admissions for French fare in August Europe, and it was only in Latin America that French films captured more than 5% of the market. Among territories outside Europe, the market leader was Mexico, the only country to generate more than 50,000 admissions.
Comedies were the most popular genre
As was the case in July, comedies were the most successful genre this month, attracting close to 56.1% of total admissions! Nonetheless, the genre's position was cut back by the new boom in the animation sector, with animated films pulling in 410,000 movie-goers, young and old, representing close to one quarter of admissions to French films overall. Among the 10 majority-French productions the most-seen by audiences on the big screen in this period, 8 belonged to these two categories. They were followed by dramas, a genre that succeeded in raking in 200,000 admissions and posting a market share above 10%. The four remaining genres (adventure/crime/thriller, fantasy/horror/sci-fic, biopic/war/history, and documentaries) lacked any strong titles to achieve successful launches and win over audiences, and consequently did not stand out in the charts in August.
Majority-French productions shot in French still lead the pack
The almost 190 films solely or majority-produced by France shown in theaters generated 79.8% of all admissions registered in August, thus gaining 7 percentage points over July, most notably thanks to the solid continued distribution of Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 and its 600,000 admissions score in theaters outside France (€4.7 million in box office revenues), in addition to Pil and its 80,000 admissions (€500,000). Minority-French productions (67 titles) saw their market share fall back once again, to 20.2% of all spectators this month due to the greater success won by the large slate of majority-French productions, and despite the new surge in popularity for Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness, which amassed 112,000 admissions in Poland (€400,000), for a total of 1.43 million tickets sold and €5.6 million generated in theaters abroad. Meanwhile, Fireheart pursues its brilliant international career (1.93 million admissions and €6.7 million all up) after winning over 90,000 new movie-goers (€600,000). Films shot in French continued to dominate the scene, generating 1.6 million ticket sales, representing almost 93% of the total figure for the month, while The Worst Person in the World on its own managed to clock up 100,000 admissions, in the category of French films shot in a foreign-language.
Best performing French titles
Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 is the French film that was most-seen on the big screen outside France in August, for the second month running. It was launched in over 330 sites in Spain, mobilizing 174,000 spectators (A Contracorriente, €1 million in ticket sales): we have had to wait 2 years and 8 months to see a French-majority production achieve an opening in Spain that exceeded 100,000 admissions—since the launch of Serial Bad Weddings 2 (A Contracorriente, 449,000 admissions and €2.9 million all up!). This hit comedy has enjoyed highly successful continued runs in markets in which it was released in July: it registered 590,000 admissions in Germany (Neue Visionen, €5.3 million), 163 000 in Poland (Gutek, €700,000), 116,000 in Austria (Filmladen, €1,1 million), 61,000 in Greece (Odeon, €400,000), and 48,000 in Portugal (Outsider, €300,000). As for, Pil, it took second place at the box office in Slovakia and fourth place in the Czech Republic. 41,000 Slovaks (Bontonfilm, €200,000) and 40,000 Czech spectators (Bontonfilm, €200,000) have since had the chance to discover the film: these scores add up to make this film the most popular French title in these markets since, respectively, Serial Bad Weddings 2 (CinemArt, 47,000 admissions and €300,000) and Mia and the White Lion (Bontonfilm, 56,000 and €200,000), both launched in April 2019. It is curious to note that the three films in the Top 10 chart featured above, Terra Willy, Little Vampire, and The Best Years of a Life, are far from being new titles. While the latter film has finally arrived on the big screen in Mexico after having its release postponed numerous times, the two other films are being re-released in Russia. First launched in 2019, Terra Willy has returned theaters across Russia, once again distributed by Exponenta-Film, and has attracted 52,000 new spectators, with a total admissions score of 209,000 and box office takings standing at €600,000 to date. Among the large number of releases of French films programmed since March this year, due to a limited offer of titles available as a result of sanctions currently in force since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it is Terra Willy that has earned the greatest success with Russian audiences.
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This report is based on results recorded on September 8, 2022. 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.
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UniFrance - Analyse mensuelle - Août 2022
