The number of tickets sold for films in the French language and the productions are majority French amounted to 40 million, twice less than in the previous year, and revenues have also been divided by two to 237 million euros. Result: the French cinema found at the export level of 2016 and is now better in the country (77 million tickets sold) than outside.
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In 2018, the biggest success of attendance abroad is Taxi 5 , with $ 2.44 million tickets sold. But the film that generated the most revenue is the feast , Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, the duo d’ the Untouchables rewarded for their contribution to the influence of the French cinema. Their film has achieved 1.67 million entries in the world, followed by The Ch’tite family Dany Boon, Belle and Sebastian 3 and White Fang . These five films have represented just over a quarter of admissions (27%) in 2018, according to the figures of Unifrance.
The comedy is the genre of fetish to export, but the animation and the documentary do well, as evidenced by the success of Faces the Villages of JR and Agnes Varda or the interest across the Atlantic to Maria by Callas . The balance sheet overall disappointing had been anticipated by Unifrance, the agency in charge of promoting French cinema abroad.
suites expected in 2019
“The movies that take the attendance to the top are often films Europacorp, made, or produced by, Luc Besson”, recalls its president, Serge Toubiana. Without Taken , Lucy or Valérian (30 million entries in the world for this film out in 2017) – movies of the pot Besson – “one returns to a figure corresponding to the base of attendance of French films abroad”.
The lack of action films in the English language, has also influenced the attendance figures in Asia, which falls into the 5th largest export zones, far behind, in order, western Europe, Latin America, central and eastern Europe and the North America. Added to this is a difficult environment in China, a country yet with great potential. Outside of success of Young Karl Marx (450.000 entries against 176.000 in France), now is the time restriction for movies, non-chinese, who have a regulation in their favour.
according To UniFrance, the frequentation of the cinema hexagonal in cinemas abroad has fallen from 52% in 2018. UniFrance
Despite these hazards, “the demand for French cinema is as strong as ever,” said Serge Toubiana, with some 665 films sold abroad in 2018, including six films that have collected more than a million spectators (up from seven last year). The year 2019 looks very promising, with comedies very expected: the result of What is made to God? , Small handkerchiefs ( We will all ) and the return of Tanguy , the eternal teenager who lives at home with his parents. The careers of several films released at the end of 2018 is expected to also thrive abroad, such as Asterix – the secret of the magic potion or The Emperor of Paris with Vincent Cassel in the role of Vidocq. This is in addition to the return of authors popular festivals such as Olivier Assayas with Double lives , released on Wednesday in France, and François Ozon with Thanks to God , presented in February at the Berlinale.
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Changing rooms, development of platforms for streaming… In this changing market, “we are in the process of inventing a new export model,” says Mr. Toubiana, insisting on the need to remain “active” with the smaller digital platforms, swarming everywhere in the world.
