French films garner 65.7m admissions and €405m in takings abroad in 2011

13/01/2012

There were mixed results for audience figures for French films in foreign theatres in 2011 according to estimated figures revealed by UniFrance (news). Admissions were up by 10% compared to 2010 at 65.7m viewers (a score within the average for the previous decade) and takings increased by 19% at €405m, but this upturn above all reflects the impressive performance of foreign-language French films (62% of admissions with, in particular, Colombiana [+see also:
trailer
film profile] with almost 8m viewers) and minority co-productions (48% with Unknown in the lead at 12.5m admissions).

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French-language films, on the other hand, declined by 28% to 25.2m admissions. Except for Nothing to Declare [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the biggest French-language majority hits of 2011 were continuations of features released in 2010: Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile], Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Sarah’s Key [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

However, 2012 should reverse the trend with promising scores for The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile] ($7m in takings so far in the US, over $1.1m in the UK, almost $1.4m in Spain and almost €1m in Italy for ongoing theatrical runs) and Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] which got off to a flying start in Germany (3rd position at the box office for its first weekend with over $2.8m in takings and a highly impressive per-screen average), not to mention upcoming mainstream titles like Asterix and Obelix: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.