New directions in contemporary French comedies: from nation, sex and class to ethnicity, community and the vagaries of the postmodern

Figures & data

Table 1. The best-selling films on the French market since 2000 (extracted from a list of the 100 best-sellers, Internet Movie Database).

Position	Year of release	Title	Director	Spectators
2	2008	Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis/Welcome to the Sticks	Dany Boon	20,489,303
3	2011	Intouchables/The Intouchables	Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano	19,490,688
8	2009	Avatar	James Cameron	14,775,990
11	2002	Astérix & Obélix : Mission Cléopatre/Asterix & Obélix : Mission Cleopatra	Alain Chabat	14,559,509
19	2014	Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au Bon Dieu ?/Serial (Bad) Weddings	Philippe de Chauveron	12,353,181
25	2006	Les Bronzés 3 : amis pour la vie/French Fried Vacation 3: Friends Forever	Patrice Leconte	10,355,930
26	2000	Taxi 2	Gérard Krawczyk	10,345,901
33	2003	Finding Nemo	Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich	9,528,033
35	2001	Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Chris Columbus	9,470,090
39	2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Chris Columbus	9,144,701
47	2001	Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain/Amelie	Jean-Pierre Jeunet	8,636,041
48	2004	Les Choristes/The Chorus	Christophe Barratier	8,636,013
51	2011	Rien à declarer/Nothing to Declare	Dany Boon	8,150,825
57	2007	Ratatouille	Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava	7,845,210
59	2001	La Vérité si je mens ! 2/Would I Lie to You 2	Thomas Gilou	7,826,393
61	2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Carlos Saldanha, Mike Thurmeier	7,803,757
62	2000	The Sixth Sense	M. Night Shyamalan	7,799,130
64	2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Mike Newell	7,731,601
68	2014	La Famille Bélier	Éric Lartigau	7,450,944
70	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Peter Jackson	7,393,904
75	2005	Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith	George Lucas	7,247,809
78	2004	Shrek 2	Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon	7,185,626
79	2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Alfonso Cuarón	7,138,548
83	2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Peter Jackson	7,070,194
87	2012	Skyfall	Sam Mendes	7,003,902
90	2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Peter Jackson	6,951,441
96	2008	Astérix aux jeux olympiques/Asterix at the Olympic Games	Frédéric Forestier, Thomas Langmann	6,817,803

Figure 1. Omar Sy and Fred Testot hosting Service après vente des émissions (http://www.20minutes.fr/).

Figure 2. The contrast between the two stars of Intouchables as seen in the poster (Gaumont).

Figure 3. The bumbling police inspector Van Der Weyden in P’tit Quinquin (Blaq Out).

Figure 4. Marketing materials for Les Deux Amis contribute to its high cultural visibility.