French films at the international box office: May 2023

**Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom** took the top position in our monthly chart, attracting 215,000 moviegoers outside France.
#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom	215,359	1,852,259	767	15	2,482,043	16,212,254
2	Argonuts	173,974	987,615	1,235	18	1,181,312	6,824,565
3	The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan	166,515	1,023,393	1,165	23	1,541,283	8,355,645
4	Driving Madeleine	108,388	961,886	453	7	374,024	3,316,823
5	The Crime Is Mine	103,472	618,123	379	9	258,359	1,856,687
6	Return to Seoul	90,443	674,855	356	12	224,867	1,856,879
7	Ernest and Célestine : A Journey in Charabia	38,622	168,774	618	8	163,778	1,037,634
8	Apaches: Gang of Paris	31,376	136,406	590	1	31,768	138,814
9	How to Survive Without Mum	26,396	197,047	99	4	47,924	401,471
10	Jeanne du Barry	26,006	268,279	82	2	26,006	268,279
11	The Blue Caftan	24,267	224,650	1,068	14	158,897	1,371,981
12	A Cat's Life	23,377	163,009	221	4	43,453	364,028
13	The Kitchen Brigade	17,439	150,820	35	5	210,009	1,356,545
14	The Sitting Duck	17,055	150,615	153	7	42,063	349,868
15	Heart of Oak	16,707	115,386	219	5	285,915	1,818,983
16	Life for Real	15,565	172,232	55	2	50,837	564,761
17	Mascarade	13,852	108,569	141	7	133,011	944,684
18	Knock, Knock, It’s Mom !	12,895	91,964	125	2	44,140	305,579
19	November	12,532	133,397	35	3	149,410	1,258,576
20	All Your Faces	11,046	99,845	28	2	39,042	395,113

Diminished box office results for French films in theaters abroad

French films registered 3.4 million admissions and generated €14.6 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in May. Despite the number of films in theaters and new releases in line with previous months, the French titles on offer attracted the lowest monthly volume of foreign viewers since September 2022 (1.5 million), 42% lower than in April.

Firstly, February, March, and April were marked by the international launches of Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom and The Three Musketeers – D’Artagnan which sent the counters soaring; secondly, May traditionally opens the summer season for big Hollywood blockbusters, with, in 2023, a richer and more "aggressive" selection than in the last three years, monopolizing cinemas and audiences' attention. That said, thanks to solid continuity and successful launches, French films maintained their place on the international scene.

The five majority-French productions the most seen on the big screen abroad were exactly the same as in April, but in a different order. For the third time, Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom topped the monthly rankings, with 215,000 new admissions, including 139,000 in Germany (Leonine, €1.13 million in box office revenues) and 46,000 in Austria (Constantin, €0.45 million). Comedy thus confirmed its leadership, remaining the biggest success of the current year with 2.48 million tickets sold outside France! For the past four months, Argonuts has held on to second place on the podium, benefiting this month from launches in Spain (Notorious, 83,000 admissions and €0.44 million), Czech Republic (Bioscop, 18,000 and €0.13 million), Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia (Blitz, 17,000 and €0.07 million), and Slovakia (Magic Box, 13,000 and €0.09 million). Third place was held by The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan : iscovered by 47,000 moviegoers in Poland (Monolith, €0.19 million), it stood out as the most popular new release in the week of its launch and took third place in the local top 10. Five productions attracted more than 100,000 spectators abroad (-1 compared with April and March) and together accounted for 37% of monthly admissions: in addition to the three titles mentioned above, they include Driving Madeleine and The Crime Is Mine. The first continued to attract German and Japanese audiences, with 135,000 (StudioCanal, €1.2 million) and 110,000 total admissions respectively (Shôchiku, €0.97 million); the second has begun its Spanish career with 52,000 tickets sold (Caramel, €0.29 million) and reached 115,000 admissions in Italy (Bim, €0.76 million). 10 films continue to be shown in more than 10 markets each, including one in more than 20: The Three Musketeers – D’Artagnan.

The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan

Spain, Germany, and Italy: the top three territories in May

As usual, Europe remains the leading geographic region for the theatrical distribution of French films. In May, in the western zone of the continent nearly 1.3 million spectators chose to see a French production. Nevertheless, with the exception of Asia (+29%), admissions fell on all continents, notably by over 50% in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Spain (293,000 admissions), Germany (250,000), and Italy (157,000) topped the monthly territories by number of spectators, and the three other markets offering over 100,000 admissions were also European. The leading non-European territory was South Korea (75,000), boosted by the 42,000 tickets sold by the minority-French production Triangle of Sadness (Green Narae, €0.29 million), ahead of Japan (61,000) and Vietnam (49,000).

Comedies, dramas, and adventure films were the most popular genres

Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, Driving Madeleine, and The Crime Is Mine ensured that comedy remained the favourite genre internationally, with attendance figures close to those in April. Thanks to the fine performances of Return to Seoul and the minority-French productions Close and The Eight Mountains, the latter two narrowly missing the symbolic 100,000 admissions mark, audiences for dramas increased by 12.5% in one month. As for animation fans, they were also more numerous (+3.2%), flocking to Argonauts, Ernest and Célestine : A Journey in Charabia, and Around the World in 80 Days, which reached the number one position of the Slovenian top 10 based on its opening week admissions (Blitz, 10,000 and €0.06 million). Adventure films, on the other hand, relinquished 78.6% of ticket sales generated in April.
Majority-French productions (67% of total admissions) and French-language productions (77%) accounted for the lion's share of the month's admissions, but were also the ones to suffer the biggest monthly drop in spectators (-51% and -46%) compared with minority-French (+18%) and foreign-language productions (-9%).

French films at international festivals in May 2023

While May was dominated by the Cannes Film Festival, with a wide selection of French films, other events also took place beyond France's borders. IndieLisboa, the international festival of independent cinema in Lisbon, and the Jeonju International Film Festival respectively welcomed 18 and 34 French productions and co-productions among their selections, with a particular focus on French documentaries. Hence, Orlando, My Political Biography, which had its world premiere in Berlin and has won four awards, continued to win over audiences, and rounded off its prize list with the Special Jury Prize at the Jeonju Film Festival. Young Cinema, which will screen at the 52nd Rotterdam International Film Festival in early 2023, was also among the documentaries present at both Indielisboa and Jeonju. On the fiction front, Rodeo, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023, continued its festival tour at the Portuguese and Korean events in May, after being selected for the French Film Festival in Yokohama organized by Unifrance in December 2022, where its director, Lola Quivoron, and its screenwriter and lead Antonia Buresi, were present.

Orlando, My Political Biography

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

> This report is based on results recorded on June 7, 2023. Since our statistics for film releases are continuously being updated, the graphics generated automatically on our website will differ from the chart feature in this article.