French films at the international box office: April 2024

Anatomy of a Fall once again claimed first place as the French film the most seen abroad in April. Autumn and the Black Jaguar and Oh La La came in second and third place respectively.

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#	Title	No. of Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	Anatomy of a Fall	309,850	1,821,691	351	33	4,848,563	35,208,541
2	Autumn and the Black Jaguar	145,420	1,072,332	1 038	16	2,309,367	16,202,321
3	Oh La La	137,967	1,200,940	739	8	557,799	5,127,026
4	The Jungle Bunch: World Tour	96,676	786,837	607	12	1,312,592	7,860,698
5	Vermin	92,420	307,819	998	9	241,918	929,111
6	The Taste of Things	89,701	604,351	381	17	1,078,158	9,067,226
7	The Beast	65,411	476,664	419	7	99,753	672,738
8	Maria Montessori	61,538	488,525	396	8	281,294
9	Argonuts	53,576	520,354	756	2	1,875,490	11,382,566
10	And the Party Goes on	42,687	271,042	124	3	50,981	362,599
11	Sweet Little Things	42,011	374,526	157	2	66,394	630,651
12	A Cat's Life	41,433	285,661	333	4	401,176	2,409,272
13	Ducobu passe au vert !	36,664	340,863	53	2	36,664	340,863
14	Zak & Wowo, la légende de Lendarys	33,752	116,534	417	1	33,752	116,534
15	Four Daughters	22,624	258,194	134	15	121,552	844,537
16	Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening	17,290	76,923	75	4	7,515,674	33,894,490
17	The President's Wife	16,410	108,086	122	4	100,040	906,419
18	The Braid	12,400	114,580	89	5	187,815	1,869,163
19	Marguerite's Theorem	12,179	72,542	79	3	45,042	306,003
20	A Great Friend	11,464	69,646	70	3	337,110	2,862,420

Box office results for French film abroad return to normal

French films registered nearly 2.5 million admissions and generated €16.2 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in April. Monthly admissions were halved compared with those of February and March 2024, which were the highest recorded since the pandemic. The extraordinary success of Anatomy of a Fall and a group of titles that attracted hundreds of thousands of foreign moviegoers explain the recent peaks. The downturn in attendance in April was due in particular to the absence of a million-ticket success, as "only" three films sold more than 100,000 tickets in less than a month (six, three of which were majority-French financed), while the number of films in distribution and new releases remained high. After many months, it was a minority French production that took the lead: Robot Dreams. Now in its eighth weekend of release, the animated film continued to charm Mexican audiences topping the 750,000 mark for local admissions (Cine Canibal, €2.93 million in ticket sales). However, when it comes to majority-French financed films, the summit remained unchanged. For the sixth time, Anatomy of a Fall triumphed, this time thanks to 310,000 new moviegoers discovering it on the big screen. The symbolic threshold of five million admissions outside France is now within reach! The drama attracted an additional 244,000
Chinese (China Film, 667,000 and €3.65 million) and almost 20,000) Polish (M2, 234,000 and €1.16 million) cinephiles.

The Taste of ThingsRight behind, still in wait, Autumn and the Black Jaguar continued its sterling career in Germany attracting more than 80,000 young and old (Studiocanal, 1.09 million and €8.56 million) Oh La La moved up one place, taking the third spot on the podium this month: the comedy continued to be programmed by German, Austrian and Hungarian movie theaters, still ranking among the 10 most viewed films for the past seven weeks in the Hungarian market. It sold 273,000 tickets in Germany (Weltkino, €2.58 million), 58,000 in Austria (FFilmladen, €0.57 million), and 31,000 in Hungary (Vertigo, €0.20 million). Two titles came close to the 100,000 spectator mark: on the one hand, The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, released in 12 territories; on the other, Vermin, which, in addition to attracting 54,000 Russians (Atmosfera, €0.19 million), continued its run in Latin America, terrifying 38,000 genre film enthusiasts (€0.12 million). Also in April, the monthly top 10 welcomed The Taste of Things and Maria Montessori, and saw the return of Argonuts, propelled by $0.56 million at the USA box office (Viva Film, approx. 53,000 admissions). A special mention goes to the two newcomers, which climbed to seventh and tenth place in the monthly top 10. Initially released in four cinemas, where it generated the best weekly average per print (close to $14,000), The Beast subsequently reached a hundred or so U.S. cinemas, where box offices sold tickets to the tune of $0.31 million (Sideshow/Janus, around 36,000 admissions). Last but not least, And the Party Goes On opened in the largest number of theaters ever for a Robert Guédiguian title in Italy attracting 41,000 spectators (Lucky Red, €0.26 million). These 10 titles accounted for 44% of admissions generated by French productions outside France in April 2024 (69% in March).

Germany, Mexico, and China: the top three territories in April 2024

As usual, Europe remains the leading geographic zone for the theatrical releases of French films (59% of monthly admissions). Western Europe accounted for 1.10 million admissions for the month to date, while Central and Eastern Europe (0.37 million) was overtaken by Latin America (0.50 million), but was still ahead of Asia (0.29 million). The aforementioned Anatomy of a Fall (0.26 million), along with the minority-French production Robot Dreams (0.32 million), was the most popular French title outside Europe. The leading three territories by admissions remained unchanged: Germany (0.38 million) remained at the top, followed by Mexico (0.37 million) and China (0.24 million). Seven foreign territories (14 in March, 13 in February, and six in January) offered more than 100,000 admissions each to French productions in April 2024 (in addition to the three already mentioned: Spain, the USA & English-speaking Canada, Italy, and Russia).

Animation returned to the forefront as the most popular genre

Panda Bear in AfricaIn April, drama yielded the crown of favorite international genre to animation (0.71 million spectators, 29% of the monthly total), thanks to the breakthroughs of minority-French productions Robot Dreams (0.35 million admissions) and newcomer Panda Bear in Africa (0.14 million), not forgetting the must-see The Jungle Bunch: World Tour and Argonuts. Only one genre attracted as many foreign moviegoers as in March: fantasy/horror/science fiction, due to the success of The Beast and Vermin. Majority-French productions (65% of total admissions) and French-language productions (72%) still accounted for the lion's share of the month's admissions. Over 0.70 million admissions went to arthouse films (28% of the monthly total), with Anatomy of a Fall leading the way, followed by The Taste of Things, The Beast, and And the Party Goes On.

French films at international film festivals in April 2024

Over the past few months, French genre films have lit up screens at both general and specialized festivals. The Soul Eater debuted at the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR) in the presence of the film's crew, before being selected for the BIFFF in Brussels and the German Fantasy Filmfest. For its part, Vermin, the closing film of last year's Venice Critics' Week, made a name for itself at the Sitges Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, before going on to screen at Göteborg, Yokohama, Slash Filmfestival (Austria), and Splat!FilmFest (Poland), among others. The Deep Dark, which also made an impression at Sitges, travelled to festivals in Austin, Glasgow, Greece, and Toronto, and won awards at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival in Los Angeles. Other titles such as Pandemonium, Hood Witch, Vincent Must Die, and Vourdalak have also made their mark on festival-goers in recent months. And in May, Cannes revealed The Balconettes (Midnight Screenings) and Animale (Critics' Week).

The Balconettes

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

> This report is based on results recorded on May 22, 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.