The Palme d’or 2023, directed by Justine Triet and produced by Les Films de Pierre and Les Films Pelléas, with Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and France 2 Cinéma, and exported by mk2 films, has succeeded in establishing itself in very different markets, including those that are traditionally not hugely Francophile. And it's even the latter that have given the film its warmest welcome!
In the USA, Anatomy of a Fall reached $3.37 million in ticket sales at the end of its seventh weekend of release (321,000 admissions). Launched in North America on October 13 in five theaters, the film achieved outstanding opening sales ($36,000 per print on average), enabling its schedule to expand to over 580 locations a month later. It reached the local top 20 and stayed there for three weeks. Anatomy of a Fall is already proving to be the biggest majority-financed French success of 2023 on the big screen in the North American market, and also the most widely seen locally since Portrait of a Lady on Fire (410,000 admissions and $3.76 million in 2020), also under the Neon banner.
We should also mention the film's British trajectory. Screened in almost 200 cinemas across the Channel, it generated £1.09 million at the box office (Lionsgate Films/Picturehouse, 142,000 admissions approx.) after its third weekend, two of which Anatomy of a Fall ranked among the ten most popular films locally. Not since Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in 2017 (Lionsgate Films, 532,000 and £4.00 million) has a majority-French financed production been so successful in the UK. If we also tick off the French language criterion, we have to go back even further, to The Intouchables (Entertainment Film Distributors, 325,000 and £2.09 million) in 2012!
To date, Anatomy of a Fall has registered among the local top five titles upon its release in Belgium & Luxembourg, Greece, Lebanon, United Kingdom & Ireland, and Switzerland), and among the top 10 eight other times. It already stands out as the most-seen French film of the current year in theaters in The Netherlands (Paradiso Entertainment, 100,000 admissions and €1.02 million) and is among the three most popular French titles of 2023 in Austria (Panda Lichtspiele Filmverleih, 13,500 and €0.14 million), Belgium & Luxembourg (Paradiso Entertainment, 74,000 and €0.62 million), Greece (Spentzos Film, 48,000 and €0.34 million), Quebec (Entract Films, 32,000 and €0.24 million), Slovenia (Fivia, 2,500 and €0.01 million), and Sweden (TriArt Film, 22,500 and €0.23 million).
Anatomy of a Fall was in the top 10 in Greece and Switzerland (Filmcoopi, 38,000 and €0.56 million) for six weeks, four in Quebec and three in Italy, where it sold 138,000 tickets (Teodora Film, €0.93 million). And let's not forget the 152,000 spectators in Germany (Plaion Pictures, €1.56 million) and 64,000 in Russia Russia (Provzglyad, €0.28 million).
Since 2000, three French films awarded the highest distinction at the Cannes Film Festival have attracted more than one million moviegoers outside France: first The Pianist (17.9 million and €99.2 million), which won the award in 2002, followed by Blue is the Warmest Color (1.81 million and €13.2 million), the big winner in 2013, and the very recent Anatomy of a Fall.
The following five minority-French productions can also be included in the tally: Dancer in the Dark (2000, 5.32 million and €31.4 million), The White Ribbon (2009, 1.70 million and €10.2 million), I, Daniel Blake (2016, 1.52 million and €10.5 million), Triangle of Sadness (2022, 3.59 million and €30.7 million), and The Square (2017, 1.64 million and €11.8 million).
Anatomy of a Fall's international tour is far from over: the film will soon be exported to Spain (Elastica Films) and Hungary (Mozinet), then, in 2024, to Latin America (BF Distribution (Bolivia)), Australia (Madman Entertainment), Hong Kong (Golden Scene), Japan (Gaga), Poland (M2 Films), and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais, among other territories.
