French Cinema Enjoyed a Strong 2023, Too

 Despite facing a year that was filled with challenges (to say the least), the rush of good news from across global markets around the 2023 box office continues. This week we see France report considerable improvements in its 2023 market over the pandemic-challenged previous years, too. Entertainment attorney Los Angeles Brandon Blake, from Blake & Wang P.A., takes a closer look.


Brandon Blake

Almost 40% Year-on-Year Rise

According to data recently released by UniFrance, the worldwide audience for pictures made in France or with French partnership rose 38.5% year-on-year. Receipts followed suit at $256M, a 37.8% jump on 2022’s figures. That figure looks even cozier for majority-French-backed productions, which saw a 74.7% audience boost, albeit only amounting to about 29.7M. French-language releases brought in a 53.6% rise in viewers, or 30.1M in hard numbers. Overall admissions still lag behind pre-pandemic figures (no surprise there) by 18%, but that is consistent across the international board. North American admission figures rose by 12.7%, with Anatomy of a Fall to thank for most of it. Let’s not forget Astérix & Obélix, however, which charmed Canadians.

The French Movie Market

These promising numbers were generated off the back of 220 new French films and 2,800 release campaigns. The performance of the French theatrical market is an interesting one, as it has also seen some profound changes to its basic ecosystem in recent years, quite independent from pandemic disruptions. With streaming on the rise, and a noted lack of the big-budget English-language action movies that have drawn crowds in the past, it’s a changed landscape in many ways.

 

Western Europe remains one of the top markets for French cinema, a trend that has been rising for almost a decade at this point. Germany, surprisingly, is one of its biggest markets, accounting for 4.21M entries alone. Russia has also been a strong market for them, with just over 7M entries although a lower gross than Germany provided. With Hollywood now considering Russia an off-limit market, it has been keen to find films elsewhere.

 

It’s good to see international fare thriving at the global box office as well as English-language content, and this will be a market to watch going into 2024. 

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