Good year for laffers, high-profile indies

'Nothing To Declare'While Hollywood tentpoles centered in france they box office once more this year, it had been a great year for mainstream Gallic comedies, high-profile American indies and a number of arthouse sleepers hits.Gaul's top independent distributor, Pathe, obtained with Dany Boon's "Absolutely nothing to Declare," which capped the B.O. having a $74.5 million gross.Other high-concept local comedies, particularly "To Where You Started" and "Service Entrance," were a number of from the year's greatest-grossing Gallic photos.While Mars Distribution and Wild Bunch hit B.O. gold with "The King's Speech" and "Night time in Paris," correspondingly, the 2 distribs also worked out well with local photos, for example Maiwenn's "Polisse" and Valerie Donzelli's "Promise of War."Jean Labadie's arthouse distrib and purchasers shingle Le Pacte also clinched strong box office figures with two Cannes standouts: "Drive" (co-distributed with Wild Side Films) and "You will find there's Pope"Box office was lower 2.2% from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 and also the breakdown of admissions was stable in comparison with 2010 with French photos repping roughly 33.4% and American photos nabbing a 51.3% share of the market."This area office possibility of indie films is larger compared to other European nations because of the large quantity of theaters (arthouse and multiplexes) and marketers that describes why in france they marketplace is highly competitive -- prices of films tend to get away from control," states Eric Lagesse, co-topper of Distributeurs Independants Reunis Europeens, the network of independent marketers in Europe. "In France, it isn't uncommon to determine a more compact independent film handled with a large distributor play in multiplexes in addition to arthouse theaters."Meanwhile, in france they VOD marketplace is warming up: Canal Plus is moving out its first subscribtion-based VOD platform, CanalPlay Infinity, while Wild Bunch's FilmoTV is improving its choices with five new film channels and three occasions more game titles.Distribs overall agree that VOD revenues have grown to be bigger but "they still don't replace with the decreasing DVD sales," states Jean-Phillipe Tirel, topper of untamed Bunch Distribution.When it comes to TV deals, feature debuts and indie photos without any cast are extremely difficult to market to many free-to-air channels, aside from Franco-German internet Arte, states Lagesse. Even paybox Canal Plus, a large backer of French cinema, is becoming more selective in the last 3 years. However the approaching arrival of Canal Plus around the free DTT landscape with two channels -- Direct 8 and Direct Star -- could energize the television market and produce more deals oppotunities to indie producers and distribtuors, states Francois Godard at Enders Analysis.Quantity of screens: 5,465Number of three dimensional screens: 2,212Top indie distribs and box office*: Pathe ($124.4 million) Mars ($77.two million) Metropolitan Filmexport ($55.5 million) Wild Bunch ($52.5 million) SND ($47.5 million)Top exhibition chains for indie films: MK2, UGC Cine Cite, Gaumont, Pathe, MK2, KinepolisTypical minimum guarantee compensated: $567,000 averageTypical theatrical gross split: 50-50 and also the exhibitors' share develops every week. Sometimes it can go as much as 70%.Top indie films: "Absolutely nothing to Declare" ($74.5 million) "The King's Speech" ($26.8 million) "Service Entrance" ($19.3 million) "To Where You Started" ($16 million) "Night time in Paris" ($14.5 million)Approaching indie pick-ups: "Sinister" (Wild Bunch) "Stone" (Metropolitan Filmexport) "Nero Fiddled" (Mars Distribution) "Seeking Justice" (SND)*Through March. 21, 2011 Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com