French films at the international box office: October 2022


#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues (€)
1	King	146,758	447,486	247	3	550,523	1,895,194
2	Around the World in 80 Days	120,195	499,971	342	4	1,425,357	8,314,768
3	November	68,456	585,193	483	5	68,456	585,193
4	Superwho?	59,809	190,244	337	7	224,585	1,381,850
5	Pil	51,403	289,456	233	12	1,086,915	5,159,863
6	The New Toy	44,260	446,229	51	2	44,260	446,229
7	Rise	42,303	317,386	383	8	189,958	1,634,962
8	Serial (Bad) Weddings 3	41,087	355,371	212	6	1,732,873	13,922,860
9	Both Sides of the Blade	36,909	207,658	178	10	118,807	884,325
10	Simone: The Journey of the Century	36,903	380,387	69	2	36,903	380,387
11	Heart of Oak	30,607	98,154	105	1	37,031	172,354
12	The Tasting	29,792	253,398	120	4	35,027	307,588
13	Maigret	29,469	189,536	95	4	316,392	2,028,099
14	The Passengers of the Night	24,805	156,517	231	5	39,410	260,072
15	Jack Mimoun and the Secrets of Val Verde	24,390	264,110	46	2	24,390	264,110
16	The Night of the 12th	24,276	174,008	98	4	48,981	378,530
17	Little Nicholas - Happy as Can Be	20,554	135,929	407	3	20,554	135,929
18	The Kitchen Brigade	19,106	149,032	72	5	91,479	711,214
19	Jumeaux mais pas trop	15,709	173,892	32	2	15,709	173,892
20	Between Two Worlds	14,783	124,608	83	6	163,406	1,176,362

French box office figures rose sharply in international markets

French cinema garnered 2.6 million spectators in theaters outside France in October, generating €19.3 million in ticket sales. The threshold of 2.5 million admissions was thus crossed for the fourth time in 2022, and this month's figure is the highest monthly score since April (2.93 million). This spectacular 73% hike in box office takings is mainly credited to productions minority-produced by France, notably the Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness, which is enjoying outstanding success in theaters (942,000 admissions, excluding France and Sweden). As regards films majority-produced by France, they attracted as many moviegoers as in September, with only two titles registering more than 100,000 admissions, against four titles last month.

Europe strengthens its leadership

Western Europe captured a little over half of all admissions to French films in theaters in October (55.4%) and secured a slightly lower market share than in September. Central and Eastern Europe, on the other hand, gained 4 points to take a 24% share. As a whole, the Old Continent remains the leading geographic region in terms of ticket sales for French films (79.4%!): four-fifths of spectators thus come from this region. Unsurprisingly, among the eight countries to register over 100,000 admissions to French productions (up 3% in one month), 7 are located in this region: Germany (342,000 admissions) stood at the top of markets for French films for the fifth consecutive month, ahead of Belgium & Luxembourg (267,000), Poland (179,000), and Russia (173,000). Outside Europe, the only territory to have registered over 100,000 admissions, or even more than 50,000, was the USA, taking second place in our charts (296,000 admissions), bolstered by the minority-French production Our Ties ($2.62 million, for around 286,000 spectators). As a result, a market share of over 10% of total admissions to French films is attributed to Northern America alone, and over 5% to Latin America alone.

Comedy is once again the most popular genre

For the fourth time this year, dramatic comedies were the leading genre, attracting 1.4 million moviegoers abroad, representing 53.6% of all admissions, boosted by the success of the minority-French film Our Ties! With the exception of documentaries and dramas, all other genres showed higher audience numbers than in September. Animations and adventure/crime/thrillers each accounted for 10% of the market with, respectively, Around the World in 80 Days (120,000 admissions) and King (146,000) leading the pack, while the minority sci-fi production Vesper Seeds (130,000) and the biopics Simone: The Journey of the Century (37,000) and Corsage (minority production, 33,000) brought new life to these genres on the international chessboard in October.

Minority-French productions and French-language films lead the show

The 79 films minority-financed by France released in theaters generated 52.2% of admissions registered in October, gaining almost 37 percentage points over last month, in particular thanks to the performance of Our Ties and Vesper Seeds. Majority-French productions (212) saw their market share fall back once again, slipping below 50% for the first time in 2022 due to the greater success of minority productions. These productions nonetheless generated an increase of 1.8% of admissions compared to September, buoyed by the success of two ambassador titles that each accounted for over 100,000 admissions (King and Around the World in 80 Days). French-language films continued to dominate the scene, amassing 1.4 million admissions (up 2.2%), although their market share fell from 90% to 53% in one month, impacted by the successful performance of the two abovementioned minority foreign-language productions.

Top French performers

King was the most-seen film on the wide screen outside France in October, a feat achieved for the first time this month. This film was has been a surprise hit in Poland, where it registered total of 233,000 admissions (M2, €750,000 in ticket sales). It attracted 63,000 moviegoers young and old in its fourth week on the screens, and the same week rose to 4th place in the Polish weekly charts—doubling its opening week score! This triumphant run in Poland, with the highest spectator numbers registered in any foreign market worldwide, allows King to cross the 500,000 admissions mark outside France and to rank as the third best performing French title so far this year in this territory. By late October, it was still showing in around 100 theaters around the country. The top title of 2020, Around the World in 80 Days, is far from terminating its international career. Launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia & Montenegro on September 23, it is enjoying a triumphant ongoing run, registering a total of 83,000 admissions in the three former Yugoslavian republics (Blitz, €270,000), thus ranking as the most successful French title in 2022. Released the same day in Spain, Around the World in 80 Days has pulled in 88,000 spectators of all ages (Flins & Piniculas, €490,000). Three majority-French productions made their debuts in our monthly Top 10, including November in 3rd place after winning over 25,000 Belgian moviegoers (Athena, €220,000) and 17,000 Russian spectators (Global, €100,000). the two other titles, The New Toy and Simone: The Journey of the Century, which hit screens in France's neighboring French-language markets at the same time as in the home market. In its second week in Belgian theaters, the remake of Jouet by Francis Veber saw its attendance figures rise by 43% to reach 37,000 admissions (Sony, €350,000). South-American audiences welcomed the arrival of Superwho? (BF), which brought the action-comedy genres back to screens on the continent. While it was in Peru that the film attracted the highest spectator numbers (28,000, for €70,000), proportionally, it was in Bolivia that it proved a major hit (12,000 for €42,000), standing out as the third majority-French drama production to clock up over 10,000 admissions since Unifrance started following box office results in this territory (2014). To conclude, Both Sides of the Blade and Pil share the achievement of being distributed in over 10 international markets in this period.

November

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This report is based on results recorded on November 10, 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.