French Films Still Struggle to Reach U.S. Cinemas, Distributors Say
French films can find a large American audience, but getting them onto American screens is the hard part. Three U.S. distributors said as much on a panel at the American French Film Festival on Thursday, 5 November.
The discussion was held with the CNC, the French government's film agency, and Variety. Speakers were Robert Aronson, executive vice president of Cohen Media Group, John Gerrans, co-president of Strand Releasing, and Paul Hudson, chief executive of Outsider Pictures. Cohen Media Group owns the Landmark Theatres circuit, a chain of art-house cinemas across the United States, according to Variety.
The panel's examples show how wide the gap can be. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie grossed about $33 million domestically, meaning in the United States and Canada, the same outlet reported. Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and an Oscar, earned around $5 million in the U.S. Neon handled that release.
Recent deals show where American companies are placing their bets. Samuel Goldwyn's company released Pathé's two-part The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, and it acquired Antonin Baudry's historical epic saga De Gaulle. Sony Pictures Classics bought Jeunet's latest film, Violette, and Louis Clichy's animated feature Iron Boy. Iron Boy won a prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section and was shortlisted for France's Oscar submission, alongside De Gaulle. Earlier this year, Sony Pictures Classics ran a theatrical release of Rebecca Zlotowski's A Private Life, starring Jodie Foster.
At home, French cinemas are busier. Admissions in France surged to a record 19.94 million in August, according to CNC figures reported by Screen Daily. In the first half of 2026, the French box office rose nearly 20 per cent. French films took 42.5 per cent of admissions in France over those six months, while U.S. films took 47.5 per cent, CNC estimates showed.
The panel took place during the festival's 30th edition, which runs from 3 to 8 November. The festival was formerly known as COLCOA. Its lineup includes new films starring Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Isabelle Huppert. Nineteen films will premiere before their release in France, and 18 are being presented with U.S. distributors, according to Unifrance.
For buyers, the festival is a shop window. Films are invited directly by the festival, and they often screen months before any American release. That timing gives distributors a look at a title before it reaches a wider market, and it gives filmmakers a chance to be seen by the people who decide what opens in cinemas.
