15/01/2010

There was a sharp downturn for French film abroad in 2009, with 66m admissions according to estimates by Unifrance, representing a 22% decline compared to the record year 2008 (84.2m viewers). Takings also dropped to €350m, from last year’s €421m (-17%).

These results, however, put the year 2009 in fourth position for the decade with a score comparable to that of 2007 (67m admissions).

Confirming a trend that has been growing for several years, 90% of French film admissions abroad in 2009 were for majority French productions of diverse genres. In the Top 10 French-language films (including seven titles that obtained better results abroad than at home) are Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (5.3m admissions for releases in 41 countries); Laurent Cantet’s The Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile] (1.6m admissions, added to the 600,000 garnered in 2008); animated film The True Story of Puss’N Boots [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (1.17m); Daniel Cohen’s The Two Worlds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (1m); Jean-Paul Salomé’s Female Agents [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (906,000); Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (560,000); and Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (520,000).

In the wake of EuropaCorp productions such as Pierre Morel’s Taken [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (22.1m admissions in 2009 out of a total 31.3m, which marks a record for the decade) and b>Olivier Mégaton’s Transporter 3 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (7.3m), English-language features represented 58% of French admissions abroad last year.

In the same category, Tony Leondis’ Igor amassed a total of 494,000 admissions, while Agnès Merlet’s French/Irish co-production Dorothy Mills [+see also:
trailer
film profile] drew 350,000 viewers.

(Translated from French)