French production reached a second all-time record with 309 movies produced in 2024, according to an annual report unveiled by the National Film Board on Tuesday.
The 2024 production level almost matches that of 2021, when postponed shoots piled up in the aftermath of the pandemic. The number of co-productions also boomed in 2024, with 130 international movies that were minority-produced with France — the third highest level since 1952, according to the CNC. France’s leading co-production partners were Belgium with 30 films, followed by Germany with eight films.
Investment in movies reached €1.44 billion ($1.57 billion), representing a rise of 21.3% compared with pre-pandemic times. Foreign investment, certainly driven by streamers such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney, also skyrocketed by 16% to $301 million. French investment in local movies also reached 1.17 billion euros, the second largest level of the last decade.
2024 was also marked by a rise of big-budget films. While the average budget for a French movie is $4.5 million, as many as eight French movies were produced with budgets above 20 million euros. That’s two times more than the average of four movies of that caliber that were produced prior to the pandemic, from 2017 to 2019.
Pathé has undeniably played a key role in this upward trend with the adventure epic “The Count of Monte Cristo,” as did Studiocanal with the crime romance “Beating Hearts” — both of which hail from production companies owned by the European powerhouse Mediawan.
Out of those eight big-budget movies, three of them were animated features, including “Asterix: The Kingdom of Nubia,” as well as “Urban Jungle” and “High in the Clouds,” Paul McCartney’s anticipated film produced by Gaumont for Netflix.
Streamers injected a combined $83.7 million in the pre-financing of the French movies in 2024, a 59-percent year-on increase. Netflix dominates largely, having financed or co-financed 27 films, followed by Disney+ with 10 films, Prime Video with six and Max with two. The report points out that streamers invested mostly in films with generous budgets by French standards, averaging $10 million.
This rise in investment is certainly tied to France’s new regulations stemming from the E.U. directive which have required streaming services to invest a portion of their local revenues in French movies aimed at theaters, on top of TV movies and series. Their level of investment predicates their access to films after their release in cinemas. Disney+, for instance, recently committed to buying or pre-buying a minimum of 70 films over the next three years, and was then granted access to newly released films nine months after their theatrical release, a big improvement from their previous 17-month window.
The pay TV group Canal+, meanwhile, has access to movies at six months after their theatrical release since it’s the leading financier of French cinema. Last year, it invested 180 million euros in local films, followed by French broadcaster France Televisions with $66 million.
Canal+ recently signed an agreement with local film guilds to invest at least €480 million ($526 million) in French and European films over the next three years.
The CNC lastly highlighted the decline in movies directed by women for the second consecutive year. Fewer than 27% of French movies were directed or co-directed by female helmers, compared with 33.2% in 2022. The drop may be tied to the cyclical nature of filmmaking and production. In documentary, however, the share of films directed by women reached 35.7%. The study also shows that female directors, for the most part, still don’t have access to large budgets. Only two French movies with budgets over $11 million were directed by women: Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha,” her follow-up to the Palme d’Or winning “Titane,” which is expected to premiere at Cannes; and “Natacha,” a comedy loosely based on the comic strip of the same name, directed by Noemie Saglio.
