French films at the international box office: January 2024

Anatomy of a Fall remained at the top of the monthly charts for the fourth consecutive month, bolstered by 626,000 spectators. The Three Musketeers - Milady and The Jungle Bunch: World Tour took second and third position.

#	Title	Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Anatomy of a Fall	625,862	4,521,682	1,499	31	2,337,930	19,135,413
2	The Three Musketeers - Milady	214,630	1,106,133	1,031	18	403,164	2,345,723
3	The Jungle Bunch: World Tour	201,159	1,119,419	860	10	689,128	3,557,268
4	Dogman	192,737	992,748	1,076	19	831,701	4,833,424
5	Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening	104,961	475,874	252	7	7,379,910	33,191,463
6	The Taste of Things	75,470	618,688	241	11	267,007	2,183,676
7	A Difficult Year	48,199	320,350	272	9	169,907	1,417,168
8	Sugar and Stars	40,590	263,037	206	4	146,261	865,526
9	Open Season	39,763	269,894	133	3	43,841	336,959
10	Sidonie in Japan	32,377	203,110	60	1	32,377	203,110
11	On The Wandering Path	26,046	213,411	142	3	225,796	1,906,304
12	Suddenly	22,355	88,663	335	4	33,125	156,092
13	Driving Madeleine	21,515	206,151	86	5	746,633	6,457,658
14	Kina & Yuk	21,429	130,011	294	5	36,063	239,665
15	The Braid	21,143	210,542	53	3	52,366	545,018
16	Last Summer	14,445	110,925	103	4	33,904	241,817
17	The Baby	13,942	96,420	52	3	29,332	218,361
18	Whale Nation	13,614	60,181	50	1	83,538	408,028
19	The Colors of Fire	13,451	79,345	73	1	51,035	397,532
20	Vaincre ou mourir	12,827	57,546	32	2	33,699	180,156

Box office results for French films consolidated internationally

French films registered 2.55 million admissions and generated €17.0 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in January. Monthly admissions were 17% higher than the previous month, with higher values than in January 2023 (2.44 million) and January 2022 (2.28 million). This is despite the fact that the number of films already in theaters and the number of new releases were both at the December level.

What remained unchanged was the name of the French film attracting the largest number of foreign viewers: for the fourth month running, Anatomy of a Fall far outstripped its rivals, buoyed by new releases and a strong return to cinemas in countries where it was already playing, thanks to multiple awards and the announcement of five Oscar nominations. 102,000 new tickets sold in Spain took it past the 300,000 mark in total sales (Elastica, €2 million), while over 77,000 Mexican (Diamond, €0.35 million) and 76,000 Brazilian (Diamond, €0.34 million) moviegoers flocked to it during its first week of release. In January, Anatomy of a Fall continued to show on the big screen in some 30 foreign territories on five continents.

The top three rankings were rounded off by two titles, both of which attracted over 200,000 viewers outside France. The first, The Three Musketeers - Milady, attracted 106,000 in Mexico (Zima, €0.40 million) and the same number in 17 other markets, while the second, The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, attracted 124,000 in Poland alone (Kino Swiat, €0.57 million). While Milady has not yet followed in D'Artagnan's footsteps in Mexico (Zima, 378,000 admissions and €1.35 million in 2023), the second instalment of The Jungle Bunch saga considerably improved on the first instalment's Polish score: in the space of a single week, it accounted for more tickets sold than the first ended 2018 (Best, 47,500 and €0.15 million)!

A total of six films scored over 100,000 international admissions in January, and six were programmed by cinemas in more than 10 territories. In addition to the aforementioned Anatomy of a Fall, The Three Musketeers - Milady, and The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, Dogman, ranked in fourth position, joined this closed club, bolstered by solid ongoing runs in China China Film, 444,000 admissions and €2.24 million in total) and new releases, including in Mexico (Diamond) and South Korea (Atnine), both close to 45,000 tickets. The minority-French-financed production The Old Oak is also included in this group. Thanks to its successful career in Romania (Ro-Image 2000, 83,000 admissions and €0.38 million in total revenues) and a success that enabled it to top the Slovenian chart the week of its launch (Karantanija, 18,000 and €0.12 million), the must-see Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening retained its place in the top five, even though its international tour will soon be coming to an end.

The lower end of the monthly top 10 welcomed a number of new entrants: the most popular title of the Tour de Cine Francés 2023, Sugar and Stars is now being regularly programmed in Mexican cinemas (Nueva Era, 72,000 and €0.28 million in total revenues), while Open Season mobilized 20,000 Hungarian moviegoers (Prorom, €0.12 million), and Sidonie in Japan was released in Italy three months before France (Academy Two, 32,000 and €0.20 million).

Germany, Mexico, and Spain: the top three territories in January

As usual, Europe remained the leading geographic zone for French cinema (65% of monthly admissions). The West contributed 1.1 million admissions to the monthly total, but, along with Asia, these were the only regions where admissions for French films fell compared with December 2023. In Latin America, on the other hand, attendance rose exponentially (+379% in one month). Cinemas in this zone were finally able to program some eagerly-awaited French titles, including Anatomy of a Fall. Germany returned to the top of the territories' ranking after July's feat, and only 4,000 admissions separated it from Mexico, which was back with a vengeance after last appearing in the top three in April 2023. Seven foreign territories offered more than 100,000 admissions each to French productions in January 2024.

Drama took the lion's share, animation progressed

In January, drama retained its title as the preferred international genre (1.28 million viewers, 50% of the monthly total), thanks to the breakthroughs of Anatomy of a Fall, Dogman, and The Old Oak (minority-French production). While comedy and animation still sat on the top three podium, it was the latter genre that benefited from renewed dynamism, posting the best monthly increase in viewers (+117%). Majority-French productions (80% of total admissions) and French-language productions (77%) continued to account for the lion's share of the month's admissions. They respectively generated 19% and 36% more admissions than in December 2023, compared with +10% for minority productions and -20% for foreign-language productions. The latter two categories were mainly driven by the success of Dogman and The Old Oak. Finally, one million admissions went to arthouse films (40% of the monthly total), led by Anatomy of a Fall and The Old Oak.

French films at international film festivals in January 2024

The latest (53rd) edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) once again provided a fine showcase for French films in all their diversity. The French selection featured both emerging and established directors, including Quentin Dupieux (Daaaaaalí!), Daniel Mann (Under a Blue Sun) and the duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (The Soul Eater), the latter was also presented at the Gérardmer festival a few days earlier. Numerous genres were represented, from drama to comedy, documentary to animation, biopic to genre film. The list includes Jérémie Périn's Mars Express and Kaouther Ben Hania's Four Daughters, both at Cannes, as well as Bertrand Bonello's The Beast, which had already been screened at TIFF and the Venice Film Festival , and will soon be shown at the 31st French Film Festival in Yokohama, organized by Unifrance. And let's not forget the world premiere of Bolero, directed by Anne Fontaine, in the presence of the film's crew.
To round off this report, we must mention that awards also went to French minority-French co-productions: Power Alley by Lillah Halla (Youth Jury Award) and The Green Border by Agnieszka Holland (Audience Award).

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

> This report is based on results recorded on February 19, 2024. 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.