French film export still takes €350m

FRENCH films pulled in audiences of 66 million worldwide last year but failed to match the record global success of Babylon A.D., Astérix and Taken in 2008.

Even though the figure is 22% short of the previous year’s 84.2m record it still means French films earned €350m (just 17% down) and it is above the average audience over the past 10 years.

President of film export body Unifrance Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre said: "2008 was an exceptional year with four films making large box-office hits abroad: Taken, Transporter 3, Babylon A.D. and Astérix at the Olympic Games.

"But annual figures must be placed in a longer-term context. And, compared with other countries in continental Europe, France’s 2009 results are still somewhat better."

His colleague, Régine Hatch-ondo, told news agency AFP: "In a time of crisis cinema audiences have a tendency to immerse themselves in known values - their local cinema and American films, and that is something we recognised and that worked well for us."

English-language film Taken - with Liam Neeson in the starring role - has been the biggest cinema draw from France over the past decade pulling in 31m viewers after its release in France in 2008 and then worldwide last year.

Neeson’s hunt to beat slave traffickers who kidnapped his daughter grossed a worldwide total of €121m last year alone.

Made by Luc Besson’s company EuropaCorp, it is the second-biggest French hit worldwide since Besson’s 1997 classic The Fifth Element, which pulled in 35m cinema viewers.

EuropaCorp is behind seven of the top 20 French-made films over the past decade with films including Taken and Transporter 3 with 16.5m viewers and Transporter 2 on 12.7m.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, with Audrey Tautou, is second highest-grossing to Taken over the past decade with 23m admissions.

Surprisingly, several films performed better outside France than they did inside, including Coco Before Chanel and The Class (Entre les murs). Coco had 5.3m audiences worldwide against just 1.03m in France - and topped the money league, taking €30m with Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Class on e8.5m.

Strongest country for French films is the US with 24m admissions, which brought in €128m. Elsewhere, Japan and China were strong backers with Japanese audiences up 90% to 2 million although ticket sales dropped in Russia, Italy and Brazil.

However, the government-backed film agency Centre National de la Cinématographie said film production and the level of investment fell in 2009 with 230 films going into production.

The latest production budgets were much lower totalling €1.1 billion - the lowest since 2004 - showing fewer big-budget films were being made.

On average 71 million people abroad bought tickets for French films each year between 2005-2009, which is 34% up on the period 2000-2004, which averaged 53m.

In a new move to boost French film, Unifrance plans a week-long webfest to promote about 50 movies in a bid to attract new viewers.

The group is looking at a December date for the online festival - with prices pegged at around €2 - and it will include French hits that have not previously received major distribution abroad.

Mr Clermont-Tonnerre said: "We have to adapt to new times. City-centre single-screen cinemas which traditionally played French films are closing in markets such as Italy and Spain."