Luc Besson boosts French films abroad

Luc Besson boosts French films abroad

The year 2014 was excellent for the export of French films. This is the second best year in exports 7th French art after the record set in 2012. The entries outside France totaled € 120.2 million, more than in France (91 million), according to Figures released Tuesday, December 1. Similarly, selling movie tickets reported 685 million euros, against 563 million euros in France.

Action movies

However, two thirds of this sum is retained by various intermediaries (exhibitors, in particular). After redistribution, it remains € 194 million received by the French distributors abroad. This represents 4% * of total direct revenues of French cinema, all confused (admissions, DVD, VoD ...). The proportion rises to 15% * when including money given to French films by foreign co-producers.

Again, these excellent figures are due to three-quarters to EuropaCorp productions. Taken 2 was doped entries there two years ago, this time it's Brick mansions, Malavita and especially Lucy. With 56 million admissions outside France (including 7 million in China), the Luc Besson film becomes the most seen French film in the world for 20 years. In total, the Luc Besson studio truste 11 places in the ranking of most watched 20 films abroad French since 2000 ...

The actors are reluctant to the promotion

There's just one catch: the Luc Besson productions are all in English. From this point of view, we even reached a historic record: ever French production in foreign language had attracted so many people. However, for the French-language films, 2014 turns out lower than the average of the past decade.

"There is a loss of attractiveness of French-language films, a slow decline which we have to work," admitted Jean-Paul Salomé, president of Unifrance, the body responsible for promoting French cinema abroad . He also regretted that the French actors reluctant to promote their films in Europe. "It is difficult to take them to Frankfurt or Prague to support a commercial release but the system can not turn if those are the best representatives do not support. "