French studio Pathé has seen its marketing and programming strategy pay off with “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic which struck box office gold in France during a competitive summer marked by the Olympics.
Helmed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (“The Three Musketeers”), the sweeping three-hour movie has become a proper French blockbuster, selling more than 8 million tickets locally (as of Sept. 9) and grossing over $75 million internationally with most major markets yet to open. These include the U.S where Samuel Goldwyn Films will release “The Count of Monte Cristo” on Jan. 25 and is aiming to position it in the awards season.
The movie, produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Chapter 2 with a budget of €43 million, world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it earned unanimous praise with Variety’s Peter Debruge calling it a “genuine triumph” and “a stunning, emotionally satisfying adventure tale.”
Although it’s based on a classic of French literature, “The Count of Monte Cristo” wasn’t obvious box office hit in a country where local comedies tend to perform better than any other genre and where French costume movies seldom click with young moviegoers. Pathé had just released the two-part saga “The Three Musketeers: d’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers: Milady” – also produced by Rassam at Chapter 2 — which performed reasonably well with 3.4 million and 2.5 million admissions sold, respectively, but nowhere near the score of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” The latter now ranks as the third highest grossing film of the year, behind “A Little Something Extra,” Artus’s heartfelt French comedy starring actors with disabilities, and Kelsey Mann’s “Inside Out 2.” “The Count of Monte Cristo” beats “Dune 2” and “Despicable Me 4” by more than 3 million tickets.
Pathé Films CEO Ardavan Safaee and Nathalie Cieutat, co-managing director of distribution at Pathé, told Variety about the gameplan they crafted to maximize the success of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” They said they marketed the film in two phases, starting in February to surf on “Dune 2;” opted to release the movie at the beginning of the summer, on June 26, to fill the gap left by American blockbusters in the aftermath of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes; banked on viral marketing to promote the pic, leveraging the fanbase of French actor Pierre Niney who plays the titular role; worked for the first time with the social media platform Recut; and positioned the film as a the origin story of France’s first superhero shot almost entirely at lush French landmarks and boasting minimal special effects. Safaee also delved into Pathé’s ambition to start making independent English-language films with mid-level budgets which he says U.S. studios have been producing less and less.
The French studio is having a busy fall with the French release of Jacques Audiard’s musical thriller “Emilia Perez,” in addition to “The Count of Monte Cristo” which is still playing in theaters. One or the other will likely be submitted to represent France in the Oscars’ international feature film race.
Why do you think “The Count of Monte Cristo” clicked with French audiences?
A.S.: Several things, on one hand, the film is good, and on the other, the theme of injustice and revenge. There’s a real superhero, a masked avenger who has a Batman-like quality. I think what also appealed to young people was their sensitivity to injustice and to the fact that someone becomes a kind of superhero thanks to his wealth, and uses it to take revenge. I’m convinced ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ will continue to be adapted in 50 or 100 years from now. It was written almost 200 years ago and people are still passionate about it.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in delivering this film?
A.S.: Our biggest challenge before this film came out to attract young people with a film in costume. We already know that on a French film, you tend to attract people over 50 rather than young people, whatever the film, but on a costume film, even more so. But we worked hard enough on it – in distribution, marketing and with Pierre Niney’s presence on social networks and with his community – to break the glass ceiling.
Why did you choose to release ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ in the summer?
A.S.: We made a rather bold decision that, for some, was even a little suicidal. Not here at Pathé, but certainly outside. People thought we were a bit crazy about the release date because we chose to roll it out in the summer, in the middle of the European Soccer Championship and the Paris Summer Olympics. And French films of the scale of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ are traditionally released during vacations that are not during the summer, whether February, Easter or the fall. But we saw that there were a cruel lack of big American films this summer, and since the film was ready and we were happy with it and we said to ourselves: ‘We’re going to have two months. If the film holds up, we’ll have two months of release time.’ Another reason was that the film is a long one, lasting three hours. We said to ourselves: ‘People have to have time to go and see a film like this. And in summer, people actually have more time.’
Nathalie Cieutat: We realized that American films with long running times like “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” were also released in the summer, but this year, there was no such offer because of the strikes. We took advantage of this lack of blockbusters.
With a budget of €43 million, “The Count of Monte Cristo” is also a lot cheaper than a typical U.S. blockbuster. How did you pull if off?
A.S.: It’s expensive for France, it’s expensive for Europe, but it’s still a hell of a lot cheaper than a big American movie. We’d already experienced this on “The Three Musketeers,” which is to say that in France we have the advantage of very well-preserved natural settings and landmarks. And we can shoot in these locations, where we don’t need to do much. We did very little studio work on this film for the indoor scenes at the Château d’If. But we have castles and all the exteriors of the film are natural settings, whereas an American film would probably have had to recreate all these settings with either studio or special effects.
Did you do any test screenings for “The Count of Monte Cristo”?
A.S.: Of course we did, we now test screen all our films. With varying frequency, depending on the film. But now, all our films are tested with a tool that exists, calling called Do the Right Film. We test the film with a wide variety of audiences and we have a very detailed set of data on appreciation about the characters, on feelings of appreciation of length, on the film, etc. It helps us a lot. Not only do we discuss it with the directors, but we also use it to promote the film, to know how to target the right audience if we’ve sometimes misunderstood the target audience at the outset. In any case, it helps us a lot both in editing, but also in distribution.
What were the results of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ during the test screenings?
N.C.: The scores were crazy. It was beyond our expectations of this type of film. It was even beyond “The Three Musketeers” which was already very high. We reached everyone.
A.S.: The data we often look at is the recommendation rate which is important, because you can like a film without saying: “I’m necessarily going to recommend it to someone.” In this case, the recommendation rate was very high. In other words, people really went around talking about it. And we saw that the word-of-mouth drove the film’s performance, which was quite exceptional, both during the European soccer Championship (Euro 2024) and during the Olympic Games, and despite the country’s political situation. So we knew the word-of-mouth was going to be solid; but obviously, we couldn’t have imagined such a score in the end.
When you look at the box office breakdown, what is the audience made of?
N.C.: It was immediately very strong with the over-50s. What’s funny is that in the 15-24 age group, it’s only gotten better. We started with 9% and today it’s over 21%. We saw very quickly that on TikTok, in particular, it became a phenomenon. There were a lot of comments from young people saying: “It’s as good as an American film, banger!” That made me laugh. A lot of TikTok videos became viral.
A.S.: The role of social networks has been enormous, thanks in particular to Pierre Niney who has had a very active community for a long time, and who really helped activate the film on the social networks. After that, we did some in-depth work on all the networks, particularly TikTok, to increase the audience. The movie also attracted the occasional moviegoers, meaning those who go to the cinema once a year, or even once every two years; as well as reruns, i.e. those who go several times. With ‘Monte Cristo,’ we even had cases of teenagers going to see the film ten times.
How did you use viral marketing to promote ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’?
N.C.: We did several things. First, we created a lot of content, sponsored it and pushed it. We also worked with a new platform in France called Recut. So we made extracts from the film available to Internet users so that they could make their own edits. We also launched a competition. Young people have been using Recut but using images that they find on the internet, but for the first time we worked with the platform to give them access to the source material to allow them to be more creative.
Does the success of “The Count of Monte Cristo” motivates you to continue producing those kinds of big-budget films?
A.S.: We’ve never lacked desire. I think we’ve demonstrated, over the last few years, that the desire is there. I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to make a big splash with every film we release on this scale, but we’ve proven that there could be a way for this type of film to appeal to a wide audience. But we have to be very cautious about the subject matter, the author, the director and the casting required to bring that film to fruition. Obviously, the main issue is financing which is tied to the international value. These films don’t exist if there isn’t an appetite outside France on the part of international distributors and therefore international audiences. It’s a bit of a clever mix where all the stars have to be aligned between the quality of the IP or the subject, the quality of the writing and directing talent, and the quality of the casting, so that these films have an audience in France and abroad. I think it’s good to see that others are also starting to make films of this magnitude and not just Pathé. I’m thinking of Cédric Jimenez’s films, specially the latest one, “Chien 51” and Gilles Lellouche’s “Beating Hearts.” We realize that there’s a public for and a desire to produce these films in France.
You’ve talked about Pathé’s ambition to start making English-language movies, is that still the case?
A.S.: There’s a kind of crisis in the production model for independent English-language films. American studios are concentrating on the tentpoles, the blockbusters. We’re seeing either very big films, or very small films, but there’s a category of films with medium budgets, meaning between $30 million to $50 million that we don’t see very often. There’s a model crisis because distributing and financing these films is very difficult today. But we have acquired experience with French-language films on this scale. We know how to do this in Europe and we’re seeing more and more talent from a new generation who want to go into these English-language films, who know how to speak English, which wasn’t necessarily the case for their elders. The key to making these film is American distribution. Independent distribution companies in the U.S. have undergone a complete overhaul in recent years. Some no longer exist and new ones that have arrived. Some of the newcomers are growing, getting bigger, wanting to make bigger films. I’m talking about A24 and Neon. We could partner tomorrow with the specialty department of a certain studio to make these films. I think they need it too. It’s something we’re giving a lot of thought to, to find the right financing and revenue model, and to say to ourselves that it’s possible.
A while ago, Europeans would develop English-language movies without a U.S. distributor attached. Is it something of the past?
A.S.: There was a time when we could take that risk and say we’d sell the film to the U.S. after it was completed. I think we can do that today on relatively low-budget films, but on the big budgets we’re talking about, like if we had made ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ in English, I don’t think it’s possible today to do that without having an American partner already at the production stage. Because if a film like that doesn’t interest the United States, I don’t think the business model will work.
Are there any project that you’re currently developing in English?
A.S.: Nothing we can announce yet. We’ve got a lot of projects we’re thinking about, but it’s in gestation. I hope we’ll be in a position to announce projects for launch next year. Right now, we feel that the platforms change their business model frequently (…) and as long as we don’t have a very stable market in the United States, it’s difficult to have a very strong, rich line-up in a very short space of time. But we’ve got a lot of leads, a few things to get off the ground and it’s all very exciting.
