In February 2024, French films were represented in international theaters by over 300 titles already in distribution and over 160 new releases, registering a total of 5.0 million admissions and generating €34.7 million in ticket sales.
Autumn and the Black Jaguar took top position in the monthly rankings. It and Anatomy of a Fall each attracted over one million foreign moviegoers! The Taste of Things came in third.
| # | Title | No. of Admissions | Box Office Revenues (€) | No. of Prints | No. of Countries | Total Admissions | Total Revenues |
| 1 | Autumn and the Black Jaguar | 1,430,077 | 9,891,190 | 2,466 | 16 | 1,430,077 | 9,891,190 |
| 2 | Anatomy of a Fall | 1,096,031 | 7,048,577 | 2,026 | 41 | 3,437,650 | 26 280,938 |
| 3 | The Taste of Things | 460,276 | 4,152,874 | 1,286 | 16 | 733,452 | 6,379,053 |
| 4 | The Jungle Bunch: World Tour | 345,187 | 2,318,105 | 2,226 | 13 | 1,053,110 | 5,971,340 |
| 5 | The Three Musketeers - Milady | 224,464 | 1,084,296 | 1,877 | 12 | 638,028 | 3,499,406 |
| 6 | Cat & Dog – The Great Crossing | 146,205 | 851,383 | 800 | 9 | 146,205 | 851,383 |
| 7 | Oh La La | 88,436 | 869,566 | 54 | 2 | 88,436 | 869,566 |
| 8 | The Successor | 80,738 | 613,310 | 91 | 3 | 80,738 | 613,310 |
| 9 | Jeanne du Barry | 44,665 | 377,375 | 116 | 4 | 1,795,151 | 9,087,367 |
| 10 | Amelie | 44,633 | 435,958 | 217 | 2 | 23 441,871 | 135,749,868 |
| 11 | The Deep Dark | 43,146 | 143,349 | 420 | 1 | 43,146 | 143,349 |
| 12 | Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening | 28,190 | 172,394 | 80 | 5 | 7,486,112 | 33,705,183 |
| 13 | Oldies but Goodies | 25,498 | 260,299 | 50 | 2 | 25,498 | 260,299 |
| 14 | Kina & Yuk | 23,069 | 161,856 | 207 | 7 | 59,132 | 401,522 |
| 15 | Dogman | 22,106 | 81,776 | 191 | 8 | 886,803 | 5,098,485 |
| 16 | The Braid | 19,484 | 188,063 | 55 | 5 | 71,850 | 733,082 |
| 17 | Mayhem! | 17,222 | 51,135 | 388 | 1 | 71,265 | 396,292 |
| 18 | Opération Portugal 2 : La Vie de château | 14,905 | 167,080 | 51 | 2 | 14,905 | 167,080 |
| 19 | Antarctica Calling | 14,030 | 136,727 | 194 | 4 | 17,302 | 186,067 |
| 20 | A Difficult Year | 13,199 | 69,101 | 143 | 6 | 183,123 | 1,486,313 |
Very high box office results for French films abroad
French films registered nearly five million admissions and generated €34.7 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in February. This is the first time monthly admissions had reached such a peak since the pandemic! These results even outstrip those of August 2023 (4.81 million) and February 2023 (4.16 million), boosted respectively by the success of Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening and Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom. It's worth noting that the last four months saw between two and three million admissions per month. This feat was ensured by the stunning arrival of Autumn and the Black Jaguar which attracted 1.43 million moviegoers of all ages across 16 territories, including 713,000 in Germany (StudioCanal, €5.67 million) and 314,000 in Poland (Kino Swiat, €1.52 million). The adventure film ranked in the top three titles in both countries, as it did in Austria (Constantin, 78,000 and €0.69 million) and Lithuania (Acme, 23,000 and €0.12 million). Gilles de Maistre's previous films, Mia and the White Lion and The Wolf and the Lion, sold 4.63 million and 1.84 million tickets respectively at foreign box offices, and Autumn and the Black Jaguar confirms the appeal of family films for a large proportion of audiences outside France.
This newcomer aimed high, topping the monthly chart and ending Anatomy of a Fall's four-month reign. Nevertheless, Justine Triet's film, which recently won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, achieved its highest monthly score since its first release: it was shown in over 40 territories and attracted over one million moviegoers, for a total of 3.44 million in box office revenues Anatomy of a Fall has become France's most successful majority-French funded fiction abroad post-Covid-19. Another of February's French protagonists was The Taste of Things, which got off to a historically strong start for a French title launched in fewer than five theaters in the USA, nearing $0.5 million at the box office (approx. 44,000 admissions) in three theaters during its opening week! At the end of February, Trần Anh Hùng's film topped the $2 million mark (217,000 admissions), and is poised to become the highest-grossing French film released by IFC in the USA. The Taste of Things also recorded 115,000 admissions in Germany (Weltkino, €1.11 million) and 60,000 in the United Kingdom & Ireland (Picturehouse, €0.55 million).
The symbolic threshold of 100,000 monthly spectators was also crossed by The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, which caused a sensation by taking first place in the Serbian & Montenegrin rankings upon its debut (Blitz, 10,000 admissions and €0.04 million), The Three Musketeers - Milady – which has now sold over 500,000 tickets outside France – and the newcomer Cat & Dog – The Great Crossing, which began its international tour in Eastern European markets, including Poland (Best, 43,000 and €0.22 million) and Ukraine (Kinomania, 23,000 and €0.08 million). Sony's Valentine's Day re-release of Amélie in the U.S. allowed the cult film to climb into the monthly top 10, ahead of the return of Jeanne du Barry and two previously unreleased titles: on the one hand, Oh La La, warmly greeted by Belgian moviegoers (Belga, 81,000 and €0.75 million); on the other, The Successor, which met with huge success in Quebec, racking up 78,000 admissions (Entract, €0.59 million), being 25,000 more than on the French market.
Germany, Poland, and the United States: the top three territories in February
As usual, Europe remains the leading geographic zone for French cinema (72% of monthly admissions). Western Europe accounted for 2.2 million admissions for the month to date, while North America (+269%) and Central and Eastern Europe (+150%) were the regions where admissions rose the most in one month. The aforementioned Anatomy of a Fall (0.70 million admissions), The Taste of Things (0.19 million), and The Jungle Bunch: World Tour (0.13 million) were the most popular films beyond Europe. Germany remained at the top of the territories' ranking, bolstered by one million tickets sold by French films. 13 foreign territories (six in January) offered more than 100,000 admissions each to French productions in February 2024.
Drama still dominated as the most popular genre, but adventure made a powerful comeback
In February, drama retained the title of favorite genre internationally (1.85 million admissions, 37% of the monthly total), thanks to the breakthroughs of Anatomy of a Fall and The Taste of Things. Only a few tens of thousands of admissions enabled it to maintain its leadership, as adventure (1.81 million and 36.5%) made a comeback under the impetus of the release of Autumn and the Black Jaguar. Majority-French productions (89% of total admissions) and French-language productions (65%) continued to account for the lion's share of the month's admissions. The number of spectators for premieres and foreign-language productions (the effect of Autumn and the Black Jaguar made itself felt) doubled compared with January. Finally, almost two million admissions went to arthouse films (39% of the monthly total), led by Anatomy of a Fall and The Taste of Things.
French films at international film festivals in February 2024
February saw the release in French theaters of Bertrand Bonello's latest film, The Beast, starring Léa Seydoux and British actor George Mackay. Sold worldwide by Kinology, the film has been in constant demand at major international festivals since its revelation in Official Competition at the Venice Film Festival in September 2023. It then screened at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), before continuing to the New York Film Festival (NYFF). The feature film, presented at no fewer than twenty festivals, also screened at the BFI London Film Festival, BIFF in South Korea, Mar Del Plata in Argentina, Marrakech, and, just this month, at the Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF). At the end of March, it will be among the films selected for the French Film Festival in Yokohama in Japan, organized by Unifrance, and will be accompanied by its director.
This report can be downloaded in PDF format below (French version only).
> This report is based on results recorded on February 13, 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.
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Unifrance - Analyse mensuelle - Février 2024
