French films at the international box office: May 2024

21 JUNE 2024

In May 2024, French films were represented in international theaters by over 330 titles already in distribution and over 200 new releases, registering a total of 2.3 million admissions and generating €16.4 million in ticket sales.

A Little Something Extra rose to first position in the monthly rankings as the French film the most seen abroad in May. It was followed by The Taste of Things and The Jungle Bunch: World Tour.

#	Title	No. of Admissions	Box Office Revenues (€)	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions	Total Revenues
1	A Little Something Extra	262,690	2,775,562	58	3	26,690	2,775,562
2	The Taste of Things	186,415	1,419,134	641	16	1,275,377	10,568,671
3	The Jungle Bunch: World Tour	127,284	592,259	1,611	19	1,447,365	8,496,902
4	Oh La La	108,047	765,949	481	10	667,846	5,914,117
5	Maria Montessori	74,678	552,804	342	9	355,972	3,010,568
6	Out of Season	59,127	573,361	185	6	90,985	809,615
7	Sweet Little Things	54,783	486,522	187	2	121,177	1,117,173
8	Hate	44,683	336,075	123	1	1,251,756	5,835,013
9	Autumn and the Black Jaguar	41,589	319,856	424	11	2,350,974	16,522,257
10	Mars Express	36,166	256,692	567	4	38,119	279,799
11	The Beast	32,589	277,983	195	10	132,342	950,721
12	A Real Job	31,970	183,501	83	2	108,764	730,091
13	Marcello Mio	29,046	211,933	214	2	29,046	211,933
14	It's Raining Men	24,672	192,925	244	6	56,159	451,931
15	Ducobu passe au vert !	23,012	214,151	51	2	59,676	555,013
16	Vermin	22,968	119,049	334	12	264,886	1,048,160
17	The Braid	20,683	176,368	242	6	208,511	2,045,738
18	Jeanne du Barry	20,540	197,027	651	7	1,862,312	9,679,379
19	The Book of Wonders	19,537	157,059	105	1	124,284	789,185
20	The Second Act	18,666	175,817	56	2	18,666	175,817

Boxoffice results for French films abroad almost unchanged month-on-month

A Little Something ExtraFrench films registered 2.3 million admissions and generated €16.4 million in ticket sales in foreign theaters in May. Monthly admission figures remained in line with those of April (-5%), but compared with those of the previous four months, were the lowest of the current year. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, January and February (over 5 million admissions each month) benefited from the locomotives Anatomy of a Fall (which disappeared from the top 10 in May) and Autumn and the Black Jaguar. Secondly, among the markets showing a slowdown in admissions – which had risen steadily post-pandemic – were key territories for French cinema, such as Germany (2024 vs 2023 = -10 %), Spain (-22 %), and The Netherlands (-7 %). On the other hand, in territories where box-office is improving (China and the USA), there were no strong local French offerings. According to Gower Street, worldwide box-office for the first five months of 2024 is 11% lower than for the same period in 2023. The same ratio is slightly more favorable to French films internationally: -8%.

In May, the number of titles in theatres and new releases rose, as did the number of French productions that managed to attract over 100,000 foreign moviegoers (7, including 4 with majority-French financing, +1). As in April, the biggest French success was a minority-French animation production, but it was not Robot Dreams that passed the baton to Panda Bear in Africa. When it comes to films with majority-French financing, the podium has been completely renewed. A Little Something Extra seems to be following the same phenomenal trajectory abroad as in France. The comedy topped the Belgian & Luxembourg and French-speaking Swiss charts, and held on to fifth place in the Quebec rankings. Positive word-of-mouth attracted an increasing number of moviegoers every week: by the end of May, A Little Something Extra had sold 182,000 tickets in Belgium & Luxembourg (Vertigo, €1.7 million in box office revenues), 52,000 in French-speaking Switzerland (Praesens,€0.8 million), and 7,500 in Quebec during its first week (A-Z, €0.1 million). The Taste of Things continued its international tour, which in May included Italy and Australia. 88,000 transalpine moviegoers (Lucky Red, €0.6 million) and 36,000 from Oceania (Rialto, €0.4 million) went to the film, making this historical romance the second biggest French-language hit of the year in these two countries. As for The Jungle Bunch: World Tour, it was exported to Latin America (77,000 total admissions) and thus returned to the monthly top 3. Maria Montessori (5th) attracted 33,000 Spaniards (Karma, €0.2 million), broke into the Dutch top 10 (Cinéart, 14,000 and €0.2 million) and topped the 25,000 mark at German box offices (Neue Visionen, 253,000 and €2.2 million). Newcomers to the monthly top 10 included Out of Season (6th), Sweet Little Things (7th), and Mars Express (10th). A special mention goes to Hate, whose Italian re-release 29 years after the original (Mikado, 138,000 admissions and €0.8 million ) sold over 44,000 tickets (Cat People, €0.3 million).

Italy, Russia, and Germany: the top three territories in May 2024

As usual, Europe remains the leading geographic zone for the theatrical releases of French films (76% of monthly admissions). Western Europe accounted for 1.4 million admissions for the monthly total, up 30% on April. Although Central and Eastern Europe remained stable (0.36 million), the Americas and Asia saw a drop in admissions for French films of up to 60%. The reception given to The Taste of Things enabled Oceania to post the best monthly performance (+88%). No French title attracted more than 100,000 moviegoers outside Europe. The top trio of territories by admissions changed: Italy reached the top and beat Russia and Germany by a few thousand tickets. 8 foreign territories (7 in April, 14 in March, 13 in February and 6 in January) offered more than 100,000 admissions each to French productions in May 2024 (in addition to the 3 mentioned: Belgium & Luxembourg, Spain, Mexico, United Kingdom & Ireland, and Switzerland).

Comedy returned to the forefront as the most popular genre

In May, animation yielded the crown of favorite international genre to comedy (1.0 million spectators, 41% of the monthly total), thanks to the phenomenal breakthrough of A Little Something Extra (25% of the genre's admissions). Comedy/comedy-drama and biopic/war/history were the only genres to attract more spectators than in April, the latter boosted by the successful start of Maria Montessori. Majority-French productions (67% of total admissions) and French-language productions (69%) still accounted for the lion's share of the month's admissions. Over 0.5 million admissions went to arthouse films (22% of the monthly total), led by The Taste of Things, followed by the re-release of Hate, Mars Express, and The Beast.

Hate

French films at international film festivals in May 2024

The Cannes Film Festival opened with The Second Act, the latest film by the prolific Quentin Dupieux. Let's take a look back at the festival careers of his films. Steak, his debut feature, was selected at the São Paulo International Film Festival in 2008. The following, Rubber, was presented at Cannes in Semaine de la Critique in 2010. Wrong featured at the Sundance Film Festival (2012), while Reality launched at the Venice Film Festival 2014. In 2019, Deerskin opened the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, then screened at TIFF and Sitges. This was followed in 2022 by Incredible But True at the Berlinale and Smoking Causes Coughing in a Midnight Screening on the Croisette. In 2023, back to the Lido for Daaaaaalí! and to Locarno for Yannick. Without forgetting Mandibles at Venice and Rotterdam, Keep an Eye Out at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, and Wrong Cops presented in the Piazza Grande at Locarno. The singular nature of Quentin Dupieux's oeuvre has made him a favorite at both genre and mainstream festivals.

Rubber

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

> This report is based on results recorded on June 17, 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.