French B.O. Surges by 33% During First Five Months of 2023, Driven by Spike in U.S. Releases, Standout French Fare

Elsa Keslassy
·2 min read
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Aside from its Palme d’Or for Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” the French cinema world is also celebrating the near-complete recovery of French box office after the pandemic.

Ticket sales are still 11.6 % down on the average levels of 2017 to 2019, but the good news is that the B.O. jumped by 33% with 82.38 million admissions during the first five months of 2023, according to the CNC (National Film Board).

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The upward trend is driven by the spike in anticipated U.S. movies being released — they skyrocketed from 29 in 2022 to 51 in 2023 during the first five months, according to Comscore France. There’s also been a tide of successful French movies, ranging from big-budget, franchise-based movies like Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” Philippe Lacheau’s “Alibi.com 2” and Martin Bourboulon’s “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” to original fare like the Omar Sy starrer “Father and Soldier” and François Ozon’s 1950’s-set courtroom comedy “The Crime is Mine.” Maiwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry” starring Johnny Depp ranks as May’s fifth biggest hit with more than 550,000 admissions ($4.3 million) since its world premiere on opening night of the Cannes Film Festival.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” top with the B.O. so far this year with an estimated $54 million from 7 million admissions, and $40.9 million from 5.3 million tickets, respectively. But unlike last year, the 2023 chart isn’t entirely dominated by U.S. blockbusters — “Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Kingdom,” “Alibi.com 2” and “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” rank third, fourth and fifth.

Both from Pathé Films, “Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Kingdom” (produced by Les Films du Tresor and Les Enfants Terribles) and “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” (produced by Chapter 2, a Mediawan company) grossed an estimated $35.4 million from 4.6 million admissions, and $24.6 million from 3.2 million admissions, respectively. “Alibi.com 2,” the second installment of the comedy franchise handled by Studiocanal, meanwhile, grossed approximately $32.4 million from 4.2 million admissions.

“Asterix and Obelix: the Middle Kingdom” is the fifth movie inspired by the French comic books, while “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan” is the first opus of a two-film saga based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic. Both star-packed films have budgets of approximately $70 million and were sold around the world.

France’s top 10 is completed by “Guardians of the Galaxy 3,” “Creed 3,” “Fast X,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Babylon,” which performed better than in other markets, according to Comscore France.

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