While cinema attendance in France experienced a somewhat disappointing year in 2025 (read the news), the international influence of French cinema has picked up again. French films grossed €272 million at the international box office (representing 42.5 million admissions) in 2025, up 6% from the previous year, according to provisional data released today as part of the 6th Export Day preceding the 28th Rendez-Vous d’Unifrance (held in Paris from 13 to 20 January – read the news). This is a good result in line with the general upward trend in global box office revenues (+5% over the first 11 months of 2025 according to Gower Street Analytics), but it should be put into perspective as the circulation of French films worldwide is still down 26% compared to its pre-pandemic level in 2017-2019.

The ranking of French films that performed best internationally last year is dominated by Gints Zilbalodis' minority co-production, the animation film Flow [+lee también:
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In terms of genres, the distribution of admissions is 34.3% for animation, 23.6% for dramas, 20.3% for comedies, 10.3% for fantasy, horror and science fiction, 4.4% for action and adventure films, 3.4% for crime films and thrillers, 1.9% for biopics and historical titles, and 1.7% for documentaries.

For the 10th consecutive year, Western Europe is the leading region with 44.8% (or 17.2 million admissions) of French film admissions internationally, with five territories featuring in the global top 10 countries most enthusiastic about French cinema: Italy (4 million admissions), Germany (3.2 million), Spain (2.2 million), Belgium and Luxembourg (1.7 million), and the United Kingdom and Ireland (1.4 million).

Latin America became the second-best region for exposure, continuing its growth with a 23.1% market share (8.8 million admissions), while Mexico established itself as the most favourable territory in the world for French cinema with 4.2 million admissions. Brazil also stood out with 1.3 million admissions.

Central and Eastern Europe accounted for 16.7% (6.4 million admissions, a significant drop) of French cinema admissions abroad in 2025, with Russia (3.2 million admissions) and Poland (1.1 million) still leading the way.

The United States/Canada region comes next with 7.7% (2.7 million admissions and a slight upturn), followed by Asia with 5.9% (with a score of 2.3 million admissions, down), Oceania at 2.1% (0.8 million admissions), the Near and Middle East (0.4%) and Africa (0.1%).

While Europe remains the preferred destination for French cinema, accounting for 61.5% of foreign admissions in 2025, the rebalancing with the rest of the world continues after the peak in 2023 (77.5% of admissions and still 67.5% last year).

These figures on the distribution of French films in cinemas around the world must be put into perspective with their strong presence on SVOD platforms. Last year, France ranked sixth in terms of the number of films and series released on international SVOD platforms (with 3.8%, behind the United States, which accounts for 40.4% of these releases abroad, followed by China with 8.8%, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Japan). The SVOD territories that released the most new French works last year were Turkey, Belgium, Russia, the United States, Italy, Germany, Spain and Japan. The French film released on the most SVOD platforms last year was Emilia Pérez (18 platforms in 24 countries).