International box office results for French films: Summer 2012


Rank	Title	Adms.	Revenues	No. of Prints	No. of Countries	Total adms.
1	The Intouchables	1 713 422	10 502 222	1 177	19	23 304 107
2	Houba! On the Trail of the Marsupilami	389 067	1 745 119	475	4	752 948
3	Happiness Never Comes Alone	279 995	2 007 273	197	5	303 089
4	What's In a Name?	245 099	1 667 066	303	9	467 833
5	On the Road	190 932	453 145	79	6	267 938
6	The Chef	182 253	1 272 793	336	8	429 419
7	And If We All Lived Together	173 777	1 340 030	216	7	594 934
8	2 Days in New York	160 181	1 076 946	178	7	234 310
9	Farewell, My Queen	155 446	998 449	85	4	241 603
10	Delicacy	151 493	993 400	147	7	504 108
11	The Lady	101 956	340 235	141	4	635 492
12	Le Cochon de Gaza	94 534	648 010	94	3	117 084
13	Love Lasts Three Years	71 509	421 307	233	4	220 867
14	Kaïra	64 519	556 296	26	2	64 519
15	Rust and Bone	56 158	439 500	57	4	216 692
16	The Well Digger's Daughter	45 507	312 495	40	2	210 013
17	The Artist	39 680	248 512	45	5	12 685 871
18	Skylab	36 825	270 828	74	3	49 107
19	Nostalgia for the Light	24 276	184 038	14	1	63 948
20	The Players	24 225	82 552	38	4	539 316

This summer's theatrical release results confirm the trends that started to take shape at the beginning of the year. The admissions realized by films whose original language is French still account for more than 80% of the total volume of admissions recorded. Although the results of The Artist and, most particularly, The Intouchables mainly explain this increased representation of French-language films, it should be noted that no French film in another language has managed to impose itself in any major way in foreign markets. In fact, if we put aside these two highly influential films, more than half of 2012 admissions have nevertheless been generated by French-language films (53.4%). Taken 2's release, planned for the end of the year, should modify these ratios slightly, without however reshuffling the cards.

The Intouchables has overtaken the international performances of Amélie, with 23.3 million admissions to date, compared to 23.1 million for the success directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It thus becomes the highest achievement of a French-language film recorded since the beginning of the 1990s and the 3rd most successful French film, behind English-language films Taken (32 million admissions) and The Fifth Element (36 million admissions).
After 15 weeks on the screens in the United States, the film has been seen by one million spectators ($8.2 million total revenue) and, in an almost insolent manner, has maintained its performances for 5 weeks on a stable run of 194 prints.
In the month of August its international career spread to Latin American countries where, once again, the film attracted large crowds. In Brazil, the film reached 5th place at the box office during its opening weekend, assembling 93,000 spectators. This is an incredible performance in this territory where only twenty films with French as their original language have passed the 100,000 admissions barrier since the beginning of the year 2000. A start of this kind should allow the film to rapidly overtake the results achieved by The Artist, which are themselves very strong (329,000 admissions), in Brazilian theaters at the beginning of the year. In Mexico, the film has racked up 123,000 admissions in 10 days, borne along by a rapid increase in the print run from 38 to 78 prints. This is an excellent launch considering that local audiences are usually much fonder of genre (thriller) and animation films than French-language comedies. In Argentina, spectators have also come out in droves to greet the film, with 90,000 admissions recorded in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, across the Pacific Ocean, 70,000 Japanese spectators took to the theaters in only 2 days.

Houba! On the Trail of the Marsupilami has managed to seduce Russian and Ukrainian spectators. In only 3 weeks, it has attracted 310,000 Russian spectators, being the 2nd best performance of a French film in this territory this year, just behind The Artist (322,000 admissions). In the Ukraine, it has reached the 32,000 admissions mark after 4 weeks on screens, an uncommon performance for this territory. Volga, which is handling the film's theatrical releases in these two territories, has carried off a great feat, for local moviegoers were, in fact, unfamiliar with the character of Marsupilami and considerable marketing efforts were necessary well before the film's release.
Thus far, the film has tallied 753,000 admissions internationally, of which 248,000 in Belgium, where it has achieved the best performance of a French film in 2012.

After a discouraging opening weekend in Russia, Happiness Never Comes Alone finally managed to attract 100,000 spectators in 3 weeks. This is an average result, when taking into account that the film stars Sophie Marceau and that Russian moviegoers usually flock to French romantic comedies. We note that Hellphone, by the same director (James Huth), achieved 358,000 admissions in Russia in 2007.
On the other hand, the film has had good results in French-speaking European countries, where it has been playing for 10 weeks, with 103,000 admissions recorded in Belgium and almost 30,000 admissions in French-speaking Switzerland. After a month on screens in Spain, it has attracted 75,000 spectators, being the 5th best performance by a French film released in this territory in 2012.

What's in a Name pursues its career in Belgium, where it has now reached 176,000 admissions after 19 weeks on screens, being the the 2nd best performance by a French film released in this territory in 2012, behind Houba! On the Trail of the Marsupilami (248,000 admissions). In Germany, the film is not faring as well, with 81,000 spectators recorded in 6 weeks and more than 140 prints in distribution. However, it has tallied 115,000 admissions in Italy after 8 weeks on screens. Since the beginning of 2012, the Italian market has suffered a global drop in film theater admissions. 30 French films have been released thus far, compared to 38 in 2011 during the same period. However, 9 of them have tallied more than 100,000 admissions. Among the list is The Intouchables, which, bolstered by its 2.5 million spectators, has achieved the 3rd largest success of the year in Italian theaters. The Italian public nevertheless continues to stand out because of its eclecticism. Several French art house titles released in 2012 have achieved their best international performances here: Chicken with Plums (78,000 admissions), Sister (56,000 admissions), All Our Desires (49,000 admissions), 17 Girls (33,000 admissions), and Declaration of War (31,000 admissions).

Farewell, My Queen has passed the million dollar revenues mark in the United States and has so far sold 150,000 tickets. This is a symbolic threshold, and once past it, a French film is often considered a success in North American theaters. Carried along by an international female cast and the appetite shown by many territories for period costume dramas (in particular, English-speaking countries and Russia), Benoît Jacquot's latest film could expect to pass the 500,000 foreign spectators mark during its international career planned for 50 territories.
To date, the film has registerd 242,000 admissions abroad.