French films crossed the 3 million admissions mark in Belgium on December 1, 2011, with 3,015,072 spectators registered this year, marking a rise of 36% over 2010.
2011 has stamped itself as one of the decade's most successful years for French films in Belgium, after previous high points in 2008 (3.6 million admissions), the year of Welcome to the Sticks, and 2006 (3.3 million admissions), the year of Friends Forever.
The fine performance of Nothing to Declare clearly boosted results in 2011. Attracting 947,686 spectators, the third film by Dany Boon was a smash hit in Belgium, where its score reached 11.6% of results in France, compared to an average score of 8%. The year's second best performer was Untouchable, which clocked up 263,047 admissions after four weeks, with the film still currently showing in theaters. Next came L’Elève Ducobu (150,256 admissions) and the surprise hit A Monster in Paris, which tallied 117,793 admissions at December 1, 2011.
A Monster in Paris is distributed by uDream, distribution affiliate of the newcomer uMedia, which specializes in film financing through tax credits that enable the outfit to acquire distribution rights for a large number of French films in Belgium. Since it was founded in September 2010 with the release of Outside the Law, uDream has already released around fifteen French films. Upcoming release is slated for Hollywoo, not to mention Cloclo, which looks set to triumph in Belgium in the wake of the success of Podium seven years ago (724,000 admissions).
In its edition of November 19, 2011, the newspaper Le Soir featured a lengthy article on the renewed success of French cinema. Fabienne Bradfer and Philippe Manche wrote: "Considering the spate of successful titles this fall, covering all genres, including Poliss, The Artist, Declaration of War, Untouchable, and My Worst Nightmare, we are starting to believe that it's true …. According to exhibitors, this fall season has seen an unprecedented quantity of high quality films."
