French films at the international box office: September 2022

**Serial (Bad) Weddings 3** remained at the top of the monthly charts, attracting 190,000 foreign spectators. Three other titles appealed to more than 100,000.
#	Title	Admissions	B.O. Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Serial (Bad) Weddings 3	189,732	1,475,644	811	7	1,717,548	13,567,488
2	Pil	165,678	794,904	763	10	1,037,006	4,870,407
3	Maigret	127,379	728,476	287	8	288,206	1,838,563
4	King	114,870	417,539	285	3	405,966	1,447,708
5	Rise	65,929	522,305	151	6	147,655	1,317,576
6	Around the World in 80 Days	51,169	268,320	379	6	1,305,107	7,814,528
7	Both Sides of the Blade	50,548	392,137	373	9	81,898	676,666
8	About Joan	33,325	268,677	102	2	33,325	268,677
9	Les Choses humaines	26,125	156,601	66	1	45,057	305,032
10	The Man in the Basement	25,506	141,333	168	2	51,706	226,773
11	The Kitchen Brigade	22,788	174,700	102	5	72,412	562,182
12	The Night of the 12th	20,857	150,773	38	2	24,705	204,523
13	Freestyle	15,533	82,707	448	1	19,971	123,491
14	Ducobu président !	14,875	127,654	32	2	78,583	707,928
15	Paris Memories	14,619	131,832	42	2	14,619	131,832
16	Pacifiction	12,697	79,546	38	1	12,697	79,546
17	Rumba Therapy	12,547	86,586	191	9	18,713	136,598
18	Between Two Worlds	12,159	110,444	74	5	149,947	1,051,754
19	Driving Madeleine	11,751	110,500	49	2	11,751	110,500
20	Vortex	11,435	41,329	61	4	67,653	424,291

Box office for French films relatively stable in international theaters

French films garnered 1.5 million admissions in theaters outside France in September, generating €9.7 million in ticket sales The threshold of 1.5 million admissions was thus crossed for the seventh time in 2022, despite a drop of 14.8% compared to August and 29.2% compared to July, when Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 landed in key markets. While its grip is loosening, other (majority-produced) titles scored well in September, with four of them exceeding 100,000 admissions: there had not been so many since April (5).

Europe consolidates its leadership

Western Europe accounted for a little over half of all admissions to French films in theaters abroad in September (60 %) and secured a slightly larger share of the market than the previous month. On the other hand, the share of Central and Eastern Europe fell by 15 points to 20.2%. The continent as a whole remained the leading geographic zone in terms of the number of tickets sold by French films (80.2%!): four out of five spectators are therefore from this region. Unsurprisingly, the five countries registering the highest spectator numbers are located in this region: the top three are Germany, the leading market for the fourth consecutive month (240,000), Italy (155,000), and Poland (151,000), ahead of Spain (138,000), Belgium & Luxembourg (107,000). Outside Europe, only South Korea and Peru each offered more than 50,000 admissions to French cinema this month. Therefore, only Latin America and Asia registered a share of more than 5% of the total.

Comedies still hold center stage

As in July and August, comedy/dramatic comedy was the leading genre of the month, attracting 0.5 million foreign filmgoers, or 35% of the total! Nevertheless, its hold was once again reduced by the rise of the adventure/political/thriller genre, which attracted 321,000 young and old, or one in five of total admissions. Among the 10 most popular productions seen on the big screen, four belong to these two categories. Drama and animation followed, each with nearly 300,000 tickets and a market share of almost 20%. The three remaining genres (biopic/war/history, fantasy/horror/science fiction, and documentary) couldn't count on a strong title and a high number of viewers to make their mark on the international scene in September.

Majority-French productions shot in the French language retain their lead

The 185 productions initiated by France released in theaters outside the home market generated 84.3% of admissions in September, thus gaining five percentage points over August, thanks in particular to the four titles amassing more than 100,000 spectators which belong to this category, followed by three others that generated more than 50,000 admissions. Minority-French productions (71 titles) saw their market share of admissions fall back once again more than 15.7% due to the greater success of the majority-French group. However, Fireheart added 53,000 viewers and returned to top position, and two new entrants already started making their mark on the big screen: Triangle of Sadness (45,000 admissions) and Corsage (29,000). French films shot in French continued to dominate the scene, generating 1.3 million admissions and representing close to 90% of the month's attendance figures, while all the French titles shot in a foreign language each remained below 50,000 moviegoers.

The best performances by French films

Serial (Bad) Weddings 3Serial (Bad) Weddings 3 is the French film that was most seen in movie theaters abroad in September, for the third consecutive month. The film continued to win over audiences in Germany (Neue Visionen, 695,000 admissions and €6.1 million in total revenues), Spain (A Contracorriente, 220,000 and €1.3 million), Poland (Gutek, 173,000 and €0.7 million), Austria (Filmladen, 130,000 and €1.2 million) and Switzerland (JMH, 100,000 and €1.3 million). Only 24,000 admissions separate it from Pil, the title in second place, which made its debut in Peru (Andes, 52,000 admissions and €0.1 million in box office revenues) and South Korea (Challan, 40,000 and €0.3 million), among other countries, and continued its triumphant career in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: it has been starring in the two local top 10 rankings for two months and has garnered 118,000 admissions (Bontonfilm,, €0.8 million), making it the biggest French success of the past five years in these two markets! In September, Pil exceeded one million admissions internationally (€4.9 million in B.O. revenues). With 110,000 tickets sold in Italy (Adler, €0.6 million), Maigret acheived the highest-grossing performance of a French film in a foreign territory this month, confirming Italian audiences' interest in French crime films and giving a boost to the French film industry in a market where cinema attendance is struggling to recover from the pandemic. Another sensation came from Poland, where moviegoers fell under the spell of King. The film recorded 64,000 admissions in its fourth week of release, when it returned to fourth place in the local rankings, double the number of its debut! 165,000 Poles have seen it on the big screen since September 9 (M2, €0.5 million). Cédric Klapisch's productions find a warm welcome in Germany and Rise, his latest feature, is no exception: it brought together 56,000 moviegoers (StudioCanal, €0.5 million), twice as many as his previous film released in 2019, Someone, Somewhere (StudioCanal, 32,000 admissions and €0.3 million), and achieved the second-highest average in the top 20 (250 admissions) in the week of its launch. 32,000 Spanish viewers (Flins & Piniculas, €0.2 million) and 19,000 former Yugoslavians (Blitz, €68,000) brought Around the World in 80 Days back into the monthly top 10, while Both Sides of the Blade continued its international career in nine markets.

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Rise

This report is based on results recorded on October 12, 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.