In search of Chinese box office success, French filmmakers face censorship and erratic regulation

Last month, three French animated films were released in China within the space of a fortnight. Yellowbird, The Jungle Bunch and the screen adaptation of popular French graphic novel The Big Bad Wolf all share similar themes and feature an array of talking animal characters.

Some might see this spate of releases as a sign of French filmmakers flaunting their presence in what is now their industry’s big­gest overseas market in terms of admissions. But it also represents both opportunities and risks as they seek to find a footing in a country where surging demand for content goes hand in hand with oblique and often erratic regulations.

According to statistics released in January by UniFrance, a government-backed organisation responsible for promoting French cinema abroad, the number of tickets sold for French films in China in 2017 ballooned by a whopping eight times, to 13.4 million, overtaking the United States and Canada, which had just over 10 million.

Admittedly, this surge in Chinese box office takings was very much down to the success of Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets , which took 409 million yuan (HK$508 million) during its month-long run through August and September and fits with a trend of non-Hollywood movies – such as Indian wrestling drama Dangal and Spanish thriller The Invisible Guest – becoming surprise hits in the mainland.