International box office results for French films: April 2010

06 MAY 2010

Oceans has met with acclaim in the USA, while 22 Bullets is a smash hit in Russia. The Concert continues its successful run in Italy and Spain, and The Ghost Writer has won over European audiences.


Rank	Title	Admissions	Receipts	No. of prints	No. of countries	Total admissions
1	The Ghost Writer	2 129 462	12 831 171	1847	10	4 604 788
2	Oceans	1 612 678	9 536 087	1678	9	4 201 964
3	22 Bullets	527 185	2 929 768	387	4	547 976
4	From Paris With Love	366 280	2 108 675	585	7	5 081 188
5	The Concert	133 265	803 430	292	3	906 751
6	A Prophet	124 688	718 315	171	6	935 497
7	Little Nicholas	110 556	645 613	219	3	1 413 710
8	Lourdes	70 732	444 484	108	5	168 332
9	Solomon Kane	44 757	240 465	245	3	1 037 592
10	The White Ribbon	36 995	220 358	86	4	1 355 997
11	Gainsbourg: Je t'aime...Moi non plus	34 088	171 811	17	1	124 217
12	Brendan and the Secret of Kells	32 572	186 202	30	1	70 921
13	My Father's Guests	32 009	210 414	15	2	32 009
14	The Roundup	30 157	194 567	28	2	101 473
15	Camping 2	27 868	172 783	27	1	27 868
16	Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky	27 095	170 146	75	3	144 450
17	Mr. Nobody	23 297	146 069	13	2	124 216
18	The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec	22 150	137 336	25	1	22 150
19	Heartbreaker	21 815	191 276	36	2	48 857
20	Vincere	21 702	128 485	43	2	50 385

After its 2 million admissions score in Japan in February, Oceans continues its international tour with a stopover in the USA. Released on Earth Day (April 22), the film climbed to the top of the general box office, attracting 324,000 spectators ($2.5 million). This is a rare feat for a foreign film, and virtually unheard of for a French documentary. Apart from the Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore ($119 million) and the French documentary The Emperor's Journey (aka March of the Penguins), which took $77 million, other documentaries rarely top the $30 million mark. After one week on the screens, Oceans tallied over 1.4 million admissions ($11 million) and now ranks as one of the 10 best-performing documentary films in the United States.

22 Bullets was released in Russia with unexpected success. Richard Berry's film clocked up 440,000 admissions in 20 days. Since films remain on Russian screens for only a short time, 22 Bullets is coming close to the end of its run. After a bleak year for French films in Russia in 2009, these are fine results in this territory, not rivaled since the first episode of the Mesrine series hit the screens in 2008 (420,000 admissions).

The Concert continues its run in Italy and Spain. With, respectively, 590,000 and 180,000 admissions to its credit, the film has achieved an outstanding performance, bolstered by stable attendance figures throughout that bear witness to positive word of mouth publicity. The Concert was also released in Japan on April 17, where it constantly showed to packed screenings at the Bunkamura cinema and the Cine Switch Ginza (Tokyo's major movie theaters). It has attracted 32,000 spectators from 5 prints. The film's distributor, Gaga Corporation, who is banking on extended success for the film, is due to raise the number of prints in circulation to 12. Now credited with close to 1 million admissions abroad, the film's international score will soon exceed its attendance figures in France (1.9 million), due, in particular, to its upcoming release in the USA on July 16 by the Weinstein Company Inc.

Finally, we can note the fine results registered by the French majority film The Ghost Writer. Shot in English, this film is approaching the 5 million admissions mark abroad. Its low-key reception in the USA (1.9 million admissions) was compensated for by excellent scores in Europe: 700,000 admissions to date in Spain, 570,000 admissions in 20 days in the UK, 400,000 admissions in two weeks in Italy, and 400,000 admissions in Poland. The film is also slated for upcoming release in Australia and Asian territories. The Ghost Writer could well finish its run with 8 million admissions outside France, doubling the score of Oliver Twist, Roman Polanski's previous film.