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

by Fabien Lemercier

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 [trailer] with almost 8m viewers) and minority co-productions (48% with Unknown in the lead at 12.5m admissions).

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

However, 2012 should reverse the trend with promising scores for The Artist [trailer, film focus] ($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 [trailer] 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.

Finally, we should point out the artistic influence of French cinema which has no fewer than ten productions and co-productions representing their respective countries in the race for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: Declaration of War [trailer], Beauty [trailer], Chantrapas, The Turin Horse [trailer, film focus], Where Do We Go Now? [trailer], Le Havre [trailer, film focus], Morgen [trailer], Omar Killed Me [trailer], Pina (3D) [trailer] and Terraferma [trailer, film focus].

(Translated from French)