Despite a crop of Oscar nominations, the “French touch” has not worked miracles in 2024. The export performance of French cinema, which has been on the rise every year since Covid, is this time down by 11 % over one year. French films brought in 250 million euros in revenue and attracted 38.1 million spectators to theaters, according to figures published by Unifrance on Monday. These figures “mark a return to normality”, explained to AFP Gilles Pélisson, the president of Unifrance (an organization responsible for promoting French cinema and audiovisual production internationally), in a difficult context for cinemas in most countries around the world.
He also notes “great progress” on the platforms, where new French releases rank, for example, far behind American or British productions, but clearly ahead of South Korean works.
In theaters last year, Germany was the country most fond of French productions, with 4.1 million admissions, ahead of Russia (3.7 million admissions), an important outlet for French cinema. , where American films are no longer officially broadcast since the invasion of Ukraine. Mexico occupies third place on the podium (2.6 million entries).
“The Count of Monte Cristo”, “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Last Jaguar”
On the film side, the new adaptation of “The Count of Monte Cristo”, with Pierre Niney, a success in France, is having a good career abroad. It is the most seen film of the year outside the borders (3.3 million admissions, 20.7 million euros in revenue in 54 countries), notably in Belgium and Luxembourg but also in Bulgaria or in Ukraine.
“Anatomy of a Fall”, Palme d’Or in 2023, continued to attract moviegoers around the world, with 4.9 million admissions since its release, including 3.2 million last year.
On the third step of the podium, “The Last Jaguar”, a family adventure film which only had one million admissions in France, attracted 2.4 million spectators in the rest of the world.
In 2025, French films could be buoyed by the awards season in the United States, where “Emilia Perez” by Jacques Audiard has just won four Golden Globes, underlines Mr. Pélisson. As for “Un p’tit truc en plus”, hit of the year in France, “it is sold and marketed in many countries even if the entries are not yet there”. Furthermore, the success of esteem cannot be denied for French cinema, the nationality most represented in the 10 major international festivals.