French films at the international box office: October 2023

Anatomy of a Fall shifted to first position in the monthly rankings, bolstered by nearly 350,000 spectators. Dogman and Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening took second and third place.


#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Anatomy of a Fall	348,744	3,022,958	1,019	14	482,628	4,204,289
2	Dogman	234,762	1,724,589	805	11	238,645	1,771,920
3	Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening	204,526	869,273	1,015	11	6,946,163	30,527,834
4	Driving Madeleine	123,557	1,025,408	178	7	680,500	5,911,215
5	The Jungle Bunch: World Tour	94,974	611,149	502	10	406,983	1,929,330
6	A Great Friend	85,805	769,800	239	7	238,582	2,100,473
7	Argonuts	82,578	391,782	232	8	1,550,315	9,447,746
8	Jeanne du Barry	71,120	403,800	432	13	1,632,037	8,014,573
9	Night of the Hunted	63,896	192,179	542	3	63,896	192,179
10	Only 3 Days Left	57,316	454,839	446	3	57,316	454,839
11	A Cat's Life	39,320	146,905	199	4	288,818	1,575,234
12	A Difficult Year	36,297	390,028	108	3	36,297	390,028
13	The President's Wife	36,001	383,188	65	2	36,001	383,188
14	The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan	33,864	164,789	118	5	1,624,042	8,960,229
15	Ride Above	31,848	108,292	118	3	185,540	924,084
16	The Inseparables	31,264	358,567	93	8	65,587	512,278
17	A Brighter Tomorrow	26,245	166,284	65	3	131,967	929,480
18	Caravaggio's Shadow	21,458	218,402	107	5	82,439	568,693
19	On The Wandering Path	18,786	115,672	64	3	100,769	921,641
20	The Animal Kingdom	18,332	172,784	83	3	18,332	172,784

Solid box office results, despite the current context, for French films abroad

French films registered 2.1 million admissions and generated €14.7 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in October. Monthly admissions were the third lowest of the current year, ahead of June (1.91 million) and May (2.05 million), and just behind January (2.33 million). Likewise, the number of films in theaters and new releases were at the low end of the monthly average. However, this critical observation needs to be qualified. One trend is common to all four months: they were deprived of a single blockbuster that attracted more than one million admissions, or that remained in distribution with unprecedented continuity. As a result, we can say that French films maintained their position in theaters outside France in October. After three consecutive months of reign, Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening and Jeanne du Barry made room for other contenders. The first remained on the podium in third place, attracting more than 200,000 new fans, young and old, whereas the second dropped to eighth place, while exporting to the second largest number of territories, just behind the month's leader, Anatomy of a Fall.
The fifth most popular film in September, the Palme d'Or 2023 climbed to the top of the rankings with 348,000 tickets sold in 14 foreign markets. At the end of October, the drama broke the $1 million box-office barrier in North America in just three weeks (Neon, around 130,000 admissions), a rare score for a foreign-language production in this English-speaking market. And its box-office figures will continue to climb, as it opened in over 580 cinemas in mid-November! Anatomy of a Fall also attracted 66,000 Dutch (Paradiso, €0.68 million) and 54,000 Italian (Teodora, €0.36 million) moviegoers. Two other French films exceeded 100,000 admissions in a single territory each. In the lead is Dogman, which has been causing a sensation in Italy, where it was presented at the Venice Film Festival in September, exciting 174,000 moviegoers (Lucky Red, €1.21 million in box office revenues). This performance earned it second place in the monthly top 10 and kept it at the top of the transalpine chart for two days. The second is a regular in the monthly top rankings, and is back in the limelight thanks to a real feat: launched on the biggest release combination ever reserved for a majority-French production (125 theaters), Driving Madeleine had sold 160,000 tickets in Denmark (Angel, €0.97 million) a month and a half after its release, and has remained one of the top ten most-viewed films on the big screen in Scandinavia ever since. The Jungle Bunch: World Tour just missed out on 100,000 tickets sold during the month of October, when it attracted 35,000 Czech (Bioscop, €0.23 million) and 18,000 Slovak (Magic Box, €0.12 million) moviegoers. Argonuts appealed to 46,000 Romanians (Cay, €0.19 million) and A Great Friend continued its success in Germany with 166,000 admissions and its sights set on the symbolic 200,000 mark (Neue Visionen, €1.45 million). Two other newcomers stood out on the market this month: the horror film yet to be released in France, Night of the Hunted, and the comedy Only 3 Days Left, which marked the best start of the Bande à Fifi comedy troupe in Belgium (Alternative, 32,000 spectators and €0.3 million).

Italy, Russia, and Germany: the top three territories in October

As usual, Europe remained the leading geographic zone for French cinema (86% of monthly admissions). The top three territories remained unchanged from September, but the order was different, with Italy taking the leading position. Over 100,000 tickets were sold in three other markets: Belgium & Luxembourg, and the USA & Canada, and Denmark. Outside Europe, French films recorded over 100,000 admissions and a market share of over 5% in North America alone, mainly thanks to Anatomy of a Fall, the only French title to attract over 100,000 spectators outside Europe in October.

Drama, comedy, and animation were the most popular genres

Night of the HuntedIn October, drama ended the reign of animation and became the preferred genre internationally (0.75 million viewers, 36% of the monthly total), thanks to the breakthroughs of Anatomy of a Fall and Dogman. Comedy and animation made the monthly top 10 with three titles each, while Jeanne du Barry ensured the presence of the biopic/history genre and Night of the Hunted restored color to French horror films abroad. Majority-French productions (91% of total admissions) and French-language productions (78%) took the lion's share of the month's admissions. The arrival of Dogman explains the higher volume of tickets sold by foreign-language productions in October. Finally, 0.67 million admissions went to arthouse films (32% of the monthly total), led by Anatomy of a Fall.

French films at international film festivals in October 2023

In October, the focus was on Latin America, where three major festivals showcased numerous French productions: the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (which selected 41 French titles, both majority- and minority-French), the Morelia International Film Festival (28) and the Mostra - São Paulo International Film Festival (77).

Among the films selected, several were present in two of the three events, such as Anatomy of a Fall, Room 999, It's Raining in the House, Inshallah a Boy, The Rapture, The Settlers, Lost Country, Robot Dreams, Puan, Ricardo and Painting, Heartless, as well as Tiger Stripes, without forgetting Cannes titles Àma Gloria, The Taste of Things (the French Best International Feature candidate at the Oscars 2024), The Goldman Case, Four Daughters, Chicken for Linda! and minority-French productions Kidnapped and La Chimera.

Among the awards received, Orlando, My Political Biography won the Best Documentary Award at the Festival international du film de Rio de Janeiro and Tótem was a triple winner at the Morelia Film Festival. Numerous artists accompanied their films at these festivals, including Catherine Corsini (Comecoming), Delphine Deloget (All to Play For), Paul Kircher (The Animal Kingdom), Samuel Kircher (Last Summer), Sophie Letourneur (Enormous) et Nicolas Philibert (On the Adamant).

Orlando, My Political Biography

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

> This report is based on results recorded on November 15, 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.