French films at the international box office: August 2023

Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening remained the monthly rankings' leader, attracting over 3.2 million spectators! Jeanne du Barry held on to second place, with Passages, new to the top 3 list, in third position.


#	Title	Admissions	B.O. Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening	3,255,633	11,435,769	3,079	11	5,138,717	24,480,984
2	Jeanne du Barry	485,561	2,081,937	1,009	6	1,021,347	4,439,646
3	Passages	94,966	695,732	398	10	94,966	695,732
4	How to Survive Without Mum	71,529	306,252	555	4	120,292	716,040
5	The Young Lovers	63,675	574,454	119	3	147,789	1,172,739
6	The Crime Is Mine	50,560	348,241	339	10	463,680	3,317,559
7	Argonuts	47,075	480,938	397	9	1,324,474	8,012,772
8	Rumba Therapy	29,933	264,625	105	2	225,854	1,869,975
9	Les Blagues de Toto 2 - Classe verte	27,153	249,110	59	3	27,153	249,110
10	A Cat's Life	26,215	197,371	322	5	114,005	873,605
11	Mr. Putifar's Wacky Plan	23,668	135,730	15	3	25,692	164,664
12	The Book of Wonders	23,527	86,675	136	13	63,952	404,136
13	Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom	18,878	151,705	113	5	2,692,081	17,873,499
14	Driving Madeleine	18,136	157,374	39	5	488,577	4,348,172
15	The Jungle Bunch: World Tour	18,017	187,991	110	3	18,017	187,991
16	Grand Expectations	15,867	67,603	260	1	15,867	67,603
17	Ride Above	15,118	118,951	311	4	44,312	358,833
18	Alibi.com 2	14,641	78,772	152	4	120,272	928,328
19	Maestro	14,335	104,371	67	2	41,483	323,224
20	Jane by Charlotte	13,770	120,761	14	3	40,029	332,670

Stunning box office results for French films in theaters abroad in August

LFrench films attracted 4.8 million spectators and generated €21.2 million in international box office receipts in August. This is the highest monthly attendance level recorded since the beginning of 2020! While there were almost as many films in exhibition and new releases as in July, admissions rose by 39%. The strong global box-office recovery that began in July continued into August, and French cinema was able to count on a solid standard-bearer, Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening. In less than two months, the animated film surpassed the 5-million-spectator mark internationally, the first French title to do so since Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017, 30.6 million admissions and €169.9 million in box office revenues), making it the third most-viewed majority-financed animated French production abroad in the last 25 years, behind The Little Prince (2015,18.4 million and €80.5 million) and Arthur and the Invisibles (2006, 10.2 million and €49.8 million)! Thanks to successful new launches, Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening attracted more people of all ages than in the previous month, including 2.3 million Russians (Exponenta, €5.8 million euros) and 445,000 Chinese (China Film, €1.7 million), and sold over 1.1 million tickets in Germany (€8.9 million). It alone accounted for two out of three admissions for French titles outside France during the month of August. Ladybug hit new markets in September, not to mention being available on Netflix in three-quarters of foreign countries (including the USA). If this hadn't been the case, it might have been able to dethrone The Little Prince.
Despite the dominance of Ladybug, other French films also made a name for themselves this month, starting with the other two titles on the podium. Jeanne du Barry totaled over 1 million admissions abroad, including 903,000 in Russia (Russian World Vision, €3.5 million) and 46,000 in Poland (Gutek, €0.2 million), not to mention her promising debut in Italy (Medusa/Notorious, 63,000 admissions and €0.41 million). New comer Passages kicked off its international tour under the Mubi banner, inviting audiences to a dozen markets, buoyed by $0.4 million in North American sales (around 40,000 admissions) and 20,000 tickets sold in Mexico (€0.08 million). How to Survive Without Mum also returned to the monthly top 10, thanks to 49,000 admissions in Russia (Atmosfera, €0.2 million) and 14,000 in Hungary (Big Bang, €0.07 million), and The Young Lovers arrived and was appreciated by 56,000 Germans (Alamode, €0.5 million). Still on the other side of the Rhine, Rumba Therapy continued to win over moviegoers, with 151,000 admissions (Neue Visionen, €1.3 million), as did Argonuts and its more than 74,000 fans in the Nordic countries (€0.8 million).

Passages

Russia, Germany, and China: top 3 territories in August

As usual, Europe remained the leading geographic region for the theatrical distribution of French films. However, as Western Europe and Oceania were the only regions to see a decline in August attendance figures, it was the central and eastern part of the old continent that enabled France to maintain its leadership. 63.5% of August viewers came from Eastern Europe - a record! Thanks to the Chinese release of Ladybug, Asia offered France over 500,000 admissions. Given the above performances, it's not surprising to find Russia (2.8 million), Germany (509,000), and China (445,000) leading the monthly territory rankings in terms of number of spectators. Only two other countries exceeded 100,000 admissions: Poland (147,000) and Hungary (102,000).

Animation, biopics, and comedies were the most popular genres

Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening ensured that animation remained the preferred international genre, attracting more people than in July (3.3 million admissions, 69% of total admissions). Thanks to the fine trajectory of Jeanne du Barry, biopics saw almost unchanged numbers month-on-month (512,000), as did comedy/drama (490,000), buoyed by its many ambassadors (How to Survive Without Mum, The Young Lovers, The Crime is Mine and two other titles in the monthly top 10 below). The other genre to post growth in August was drama (361,000, +11%), boosted by the arrival of Passages. French arthouse titles accounted for one in five admissions during the month under review, i.e. 1 million tickets sold (Jeanne du Barry, Passages, and The Crime is Mine made up the top three). Majority-French productions (95% of total admissions) and French-language productions (94%) accounted for the lion's share of the month's admissions; minority-financed productions hit an annual low (217,000 admissions), while foreign-language productions rebounded with Passages (302,000, +39%).

French films at international festivals in July and August 2023

In July and August, almost 300 majority- and minority-French films were selected for key international festivals. Among them, three works representing the diversity of current French productions and co-productions were particularly in demand. First, of course, Justine Triet's 2023 Palme d'or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was honored at four festivals this summer, including Karlovy Vary, Locarno, and Telluride (photo below. Next, Ira Sachs' Passages, which was discovered earlier this year at Sundance, was selected at New Horizons in Wrocław and at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Closing the festival's roundup, Lisandro Alonso's Eureka, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, was presented at Munich and at New Horizons. Audiences at the Melbourne and Jerusalem Film Festivals were able to discover these three feature films, all programmed by these events. The New Horizons Film Festival in Wrocław, with 58 French works (both majority- and minority-financed), held the record for interest in French films, but Karlovy Vary (35) and Locarno (30) also showed great openness to French productions during this period.

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

> This report is based on results recorded on September 6, 2023. 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.