International box office results for French films: January 2010

06 FEBRUARY 2010

Oceans tops the box office results for the month of January. The Hedgehog and Little Nicolas have also achieved notable results. Meanwhile A Prophet's international career has just got underway.

Rank	Title	Adms.	Revenues	Prints	Countries	Total Adms.
1	Oceans	569 118	5,226,074	302	1	569,118
2	The Hedgehog	417 110	2,551,318	291	2	591,140
3	Little Nicholas	259 729	1,204,547	382	6	1,069,196
4	The White Ribbon	246 439	1,545,320	139	10	738,937
5	Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard	227 831	1,323,581	563	8	1,407,676
6	A Prophet	147 372	886,709	93	3	251,670
7	Welcome	80,409	473,364	57	3	207,662
8	Looking for Eric	79,509	492,386	119	5	561,306
9	Queen to Play	65,958	430,946	61	1	74,284
10	Mr. Nobody	56,926	356,756	38	2	56,926
11	The Concert	33,860	232,999	22	2	109,852
12	Séraphine	31,618	203,503	52	4	430,453
13	La Première Etoile	29,957	178,561	47	1	44,518
14	Oscar and the Lady in Pink	17,161	113,329	28	2	51,321
15	Changing Sides	16,411	87,096	58	1	261,984
16	Coco Before Chanel	15,516	79,075	32	4	5,446,246
17	Micmacs	13,931	91,492	25	2	107,759
18	Eleanor's Secret	11,966	75,693	22	2	30,003
19	Dorothy Mills	10,917	26,420	7	1	398,992
20	The Wedding Song	10,687	58,273	11	1	34,583

Oceans leads the box office this month, and has encountered historic success in Japan. With 570,000 admissions for its first week on a release of 302 prints, the film confounded even the most optimistic forecasts and should cross the 2 million admissions mark in this territory alone. With a result such as this, it may even outdistance The Pianist, the highest result achieved to date by a French film in Japan with its tally of 2.2 million admissions. These results augur well for the rest of the film’s international career, beginning with Germany on February 25, followed by the United States on April 22.
Another surprise are the very strong results achieved by The Hedgehog in Italy and Spain. With respectively 345,000 and 220,000 admissions to date – results that already exceed the strongest French titles in these territories last year – the film’s career appears to be off to a particularly promising start. With 600,000 admissions raked up abroad by the end of January, The Hedgehog should soon beat its result in France (839,000 admissions). The next release on its slate is for April 8 in Germany.

Little Nicholas is also one of the year’s major players. With 260,000 admissions this month, the film has now crossed the million admission threshold internationally, and this in a mere 6 territories. Its most remarkable result has been in Poland, where the film has garnered 450,000 admissions, although it was only released November 9 and is still enjoying its run. After taking this year’s first place for French films in Belgium (220,000 admissions) and in Switzerland (130,000 admissions), the film has just been released in South Korea. In three days alone, Little Nicholas has tallied 110,000 admissions and should eventually register 350,000. Its next release is planned for February 19 in Quebec.

Boasting its Cannes’ Grand Prix award and its recent BAFTA and Oscar nominations, A Prophet is attracting audiences in the United Kingdom. With 132,000 admissions in only ten days, the film could reach 300,000. It has currently accumulated 250,000 admissions in international territories, notably thanks to 45,000 admissions in Russia last October and 40,000 in Belgium in September. A Prophet will be released in the United States on February 12, three weeks before the Academy Awards.

After a somewhat disappointing career in French-speaking countries (22,000 admissions in Belgium, 20,000 in Switzerland), Welcome has scored its first success in Italy. With 140,000 admissions on a maximum of 55 prints, the film allows French films in Italy to feel more confident after a morose 2009. It has also provided Philippe Lioret with his most successful film abroad thus far (as is already the case in France), ahead of The Light (2004) and its 310,000 admissions.

Lastly, let us note the fine results achieved by Queen to Play in Germany, where this debut feature has scored 66,000 admissions in four weeks. Its sights are now set on the 100,000 mark.