The winners of 2011: Untouchable and the rest

by Fabien Lemercier

22/12/2011 - While the 2010 audience figure record (206.3m admissions, i.e. the best score since 1968) is about to be broken, it’s time to take stock of the box-office results for films released this year in French theatres. The final ranking is topped by two domestic comedies: directorial duo Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s phenomenal hit Untouchable [trailer] (14.56m admissions in seven weeks – distributed by Gaumont ) and Dany Boon’s Nothing to Declare [trailer] (8.13m viewers – Pathé). The podium is completed by David Yates’s UK/US co-production Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 [trailer] (6.51m admissions – Warner).

In the Top 10, there is only one other European feature with Tom Hooper’s UK film The King’s Speech [trailer, film focus] (3m viewers - Wild Bunch Distribution) in eighth position.

Standing out among the 20 French films that surpassed the 1m admissions mark are Maïwenn’s Poliss [trailer, film focus] (2.3m viewers in eight weeks – Mars Distribution) and Philippe Le Guay’s Service Entrance [trailer] (2.27m – SND). They are followed by directorial trio Thomas N'Gijol, Fabrice Eboué and Lionel Stekete’s comedy Back To Square One [trailer] (1.8m – Mars); Bibo Bergeron’s animated film A Monster in Paris [trailer] (1.63m – EuropaCorp); Christophe Barratier’s War of the Buttons [trailer] (1.54m – Mars); Olivier Baroux’s The Tuches [trailer] (1.52m – Pathé); Eric Lavaine’s Welcome Aboard [trailer] (1.41m – Pathé); and Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist [trailer, film focus] (1.52m admissions in nine weeks – Warner).

Next in line are Philippe de Chauveron’s L’élève Ducobu [trailer] (“Student Ducobu”, 1.47m – UGC); Yann Samuell’s War of the Buttons [trailer] (1.43m – UGC); Daniel Auteuil’s The Well-Digger’s Daughter [trailer] (1.39m – Pathé); Jérôme Salles’s The Burma Conspiracy [trailer] (1.35m - Wild Bunch); and Zep’s Titeuf, the Film (1.26m – Pathé). Just behind are directorial duo Frédéric Berthe and Pascal Serieis’s Hollywoo [trailer] (1.23m viewers in two weeks - StudioCanal); Philippe Guillard’s Jo’s Son [trailer] (1.23m - Gaumont); Nicolas Cuche’s Second Chance [trailer] (1.04m - Mars); Cédric Klapisch’s My Piece of the Pie [trailer] (1.02m – StudioCanal); and Olivier Marchal’s A Gang Story [trailer] (937,000 admissions in three weeks - Gaumont).

Among the non-domestic European films, there were noteworthy performances by Woody Allen’s Spanish co-production Midnight in Paris [trailer] (1.73m viewers - Mars); Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe’s German animated feature Animals United [trailer] (1.05m - Metropolitan Filmexport); Spanish helmer Jaume Collet-Serra’s UK/French/German co-production Unknown [trailer] (1m – StudioCanal); The Skin I Live In [trailer, film focus] by fellow Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (718,000 admissions - Pathé); and We Have A Pope [trailer, film focus] by Italy’s Nanni Moretti (694,000 - Le Pacte).

(Translated from French)