EuropaCorp, toons, comedies push French exports to a strong €600 mln

PanARMENIAN.Net - Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp, family entertainment and comedies pushed French film export to a strong €600 million ($657 million) and 106 million in ticket sales outside France, the third best year in history, UniFrance announced Friday, January 15 in Paris, according to Variety.

“Taken 3” was France’s biggest hot abroad, notching up €261.7 million($286.6 million) after comedies began to break out with Dany Boon’s 2008’s “Welcome to the Sticks,” animation is now France’s newest star.

Result also signal the third time in four years French movies have punched cinema theater tix sales above the symbolic 100 million admission mark abroad, after 2012’s 144.1 million and 2014’s 120.2 million.

But it’s not just the figure but the way French films got there in 2015 which is significant: Led by “The Little Prince,” produced by Atom Soumache and Dimitri Rassam at On Entertainment, who received the plaudit of UniFrance’s Men of the Year at an award ceremony Friday night, three out of the Top 10 French films abroad were animated features, and a fourth, a fairy tale riff, “Beauty and the Beast.”

That underscores a brace of current box office trends; Family entertainment is proving particularly resilient over much of the world; it is underserved by Europe’s independent production sector; mainstream entertainment, and not EuropaCorp action thrillers, is now making the big bucks for France abroad. France’s first live-action drama, “Samba,” starring Omar Sy (“Jurassic World”) placed No. 8 in 2015 Fremch export box office rankings. “Beauty and the Beast,” from Christophe Gans (“Silent Hill”) came No. 9. France’s first arthouse offering, Wim Wenders’ co-directed “The Salt of the Earth,” an international co-production, rounded up the Top 10 of France’s biggest hits at the international box office.

World premiering at Cannes, and already France’s biggest foreign market animation hit ever, “The Little Prince – ” a Paramount pick-up which has now grossed $103 million and 19 million admissions worldwide – looks as if it has considerable gas still in the tank with the U.S (March 18), Canada, the U.K., Spain and Australia/New Zealand still to open.

But On Animation Studios is one of the very few companies in Europe – think Aardman, David Heyman in the case of CG/live action “Paddington,” both working in partnership with Paris-based Euro group Studiocanal, – which is able to attain a sufficient scale of production to take on the Hollywood Studios in animation, the question is whether France can sustain such animation B.O. every year.

The rise of French filmed family entertainment feed through into individual market results. A bastion of family cinemagoing, Latin America saw B.O. for French movies shoot up 76% in Mexico to €25.2 million ($27.6 million) and 44% in Brazil (€19.2 million: $20.9 million).

In terms of overseas markets, 2015 saw a turn-up for the statistics book with China proving the No. 1 overseas market for French in spectators (14.7 million), beating out the U.S. and English-speaking Canada (14.4 million), though the latter repped €105.7 million ($115.7 million) in gross box office for Gallic fare vs. China’s €70.8 million ($77.5 million).