French films at the international box office: April 2011

10 MAY 2011

In a year-on-year comparison (May 2010 to April 2011 against May 2009 to April 2010), French films show a decline of 4.9%. A string of titles nonetheless made their mark in this period.


Rank	Title	Admissions	B.O. Revenues	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total Admissions
1	Unknown	3,870,195	23,474,140	901	10	10,544,787
2	Of Gods and Men	354,113	2,028,997	351	6	1,768,091
3	Potiche	249,229	1,667,400	208	6	1,011,333
4	The Burma Conspiracy	205,619	1,227,831	231	5	260,966
5	Nothing to Declare	180,421	1,277,268	88	2	1,234,424
6	Certified Copy	92,850	532,236	76	4	486,801
7	Incendies	64,216	394,631	88	4	226,085
8	The Illusionist	46,101	257,749	47	3	443,897
9	My Afternoons with Marguerite	28,112	169,572	29	1	627,568
10	Service Entrance	19,663	169,730	42	6	28,904
11	Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard	16,932	100,759	30	1	2,732,042
12	Arthur and the War of the Two Worlds	15,369	91,456	89	2	779,396
13	Little Nicholas	14,505	49,157	22	2	2,157,988
14	The Italian	14,079	81,769	68	1	215,089
15	The Tree	13,761	93,697	38	4	105,470
16	My Piece of the Pie	12,150	89,771	31	1	22,476
17	Miral	11,407	63,316	25	1	109,955
18	The Marquis	9,654	65,238	9	1	9,654
19	The Human Resources Manager	7,849	44,568	28	2	56,110
20	On Tour	7,355	40,543	15	2	48,404

Potiche by François Ozon crossed the million admissions mark this month. The only film among the Top 20 titles to register more than 1,000 admissions per print, Potiche has enjoyed an excellent run in the USA, attracting 100,000 spectators after five weeks. It looks set to top the million dollar figure at the box office this week (150,000 admissions). Its fine performance almost matches the recent results of Certified Copy in the USA, which completed its seventh week with $1.1 million in the till. In Germany, Potiche registered close to 350,000 admissions after six weeks–the best score for a French film in Germany in 2011.

Also in Germany, The Name of Love continues its successful career, with close to 74,000 admissions in less than three weeks. The film has already outscored the fine performance of Mademoiselle Chambon in Germany (72,000 admissions in 2010), as well as The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (63,000 admissions in 2010), and Carlos (56,000 admissions in 2010).

Of Gods and Men pursues its American tour, taking $3.3 million after nine weeks (420,000 admissions). This is a remarkable score for last year’s Grand Prix winner at Cannes, the first French-language drama to achieve such results in this territory since Coco Before Chanel in 2009. By comparison, another successful past release, which showed on US screens for the same number of weeks, the 2008 Palme d’Or winner The Class took $2.3 million.

Small World finished its German run with 121,000 admissions. In German-speaking Switzerland, the film drew 91,000 spectators, the second best performance for a French film in this territory in the past five years after Welcome to the Sticks, which attracted 361,000 spectators.

Titeuf, le Film pulled in 38,000 spectators in Belgium after three weeks on the screens. This is a modest score for this screen adaptation of a successful comic book series, which should nonetheless reach 60,000 admissions in coming weeks. The film has registered 19,000 admissions in French-speaking Switzerland after four weeks. This too is a disappointing performance in the country of origin of Pef, the creator of the famous blond-quiffed hero.
The French comedies Little Nicholas and The Italian continue to conquer German audiences, after, respectively, 35 and 16 weeks on the screens. With 342,000 admissions to its credit, Little Nicholas boasts the second highest attendance score for a French film in this territory in 2010, after The Concert (378,000 admissions). Although a less spectacular performance, The Italian achieved a more than respectable 157,000 admissions.