According to a report released by the CNC, after a year marked by a two-month lockdown and COVID restrictions, the volume of French productions increased by 43.5 percent in 2021, with 340 films created after significant postponements in 2020. (National Film Board).
The amount of films made last year was significantly larger than in 2019, before the pandemic, by 13%. Along with output, investment in French films increased by 73.5 percent to €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion), the second-highest total of the decade, after only 2016. It's a 21.4 percent rise over the previous year.
While French films in 2021 had an average budget of €4.2 million, Pathé ("CODA") released four films with budgets over €30 million ($32 million): "Asterix & Obelix, the Middle Kingdom," a live-action film based on the Belgian comic book by Guillaume Canet, as well as "The Three Musketeers – D'Artagnan" and "The Three Musketeers – Milady," an epic two-part saga based on Alexandre Dumas' classic novel and Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Notre-Dame on Fire."
French television channels, which are required to invest a percentage of their annual income in French and European films, financed on average 30% of film expenditures, placing them second only to producers as a source of film funding. The average amount of money spent on public subsidies was 10% of total spending, a new high.
