‘Flow,’ ‘Emilia Perez’ Push Global Box Office for French Films to $318 Million for 2025

Co-production muscle and Oscar glory burnished French cinema’s global cachet in 2025, as both majority and minority French productions generated an estimated 42.5 million international admissions, translating into just under $318 million at the global box office.

Oscar winners “Flow,” “I’m Still Here” and “Emilia Perez” all struck gold at the tail end of the awards circuit, together accounting for 13.1 million ticket sales worldwide in 2025 alone, with Jacques Audiard’s cartel musical “Emilia Perez” pairing its North American Netflix rollout with theatrical releases across some 50 additional territories, making for $15.7 million in international receipts.

Gints Zilbalodis’s animated breakout “Flow” topped the year’s French exports with 8.2 million admissions, followed by Luc Besson’s “Dracula: A Love Tale” (3.7 million) and Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” (2.3 million), underscoring France’s long-standing position as the world’s most prolific co-production partner — and Besson’s continued pull as a box-office brand unto himself. Majority French titles “Pets on a Train” (2.3 million), “Emilia Perez” (2.1 million) and “The Marching Band” (1.4 million) rounded out the top performers.

Unveiled by Unifrance ahead of this week’s Unifrance Rendezvous in Paris, the figures also point to broader market shifts. While “Ne Zha 2” and “Zootopia 2” led global admissions, French animation lifted its international market share to a record 34.3%, fueled by “Night of the Zoopocalypse” and “Pets on a Train” — both of which landed wide North American theatrical releases — and by “Flow,” now the fourth-highest-grossing French animated feature of all time.

The data also surfaced a few notable ironies. Despite local backlash to “Emilia Perez,” Mexico emerged as France’s top export territory, accounting for 11% of total international admissions and helping push Latin America past both Central and Eastern Europe and North America to become the second-most active regional market for French films. In another statistical echo, the finding that one in five international viewers saw “Flow” in theaters mirrored a separate headline number: That French productions made up 20% of all feature films selected by the major international festivals in 2025.

With awards momentum carrying into 2026, French co-productions are poised to extend that run. Coming off the Golden Globes — and following twin wins for Jafar Panahi with “It Was Just an Accident,” and Jim Jarmusch with “Father Mother Sister Brother” at Cannes and Venice — titles including Globe winners “The Secret Agent” and “Sentimental Value,” France’s Oscar submission “It Was Just an Accident,” and audience standouts “Sirat,” “The Voice of Hind Rajab” and “No Other Choice” are all expected to benefit from an increasingly international AMPAS voting body.