EXCLUSIVE: Antonin Baudry’s epic double feature De Gaulle has rallied distributors across the globe with Pathe announcing sales to more than 20 major territories including Entertainment Film Distributors in the UK.
The saga’s two parts De Gaulle: Resistance and De Gaulle: Liberte have sold as a package deal across the European continent to Benelux (The Searchers), Germany (Capelight), Austria (Panda), Scandinavia (Mislabel), Italy (Movies Inspired), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Spain (YouPlanet), Switzerland (Pathe AG), Greece and Cyprus (Femeway), Romania (ADS), Bulgaria (Beta Films), CIS and the Baltics (Pasatiempo), Czech Republic and Slovakia (AQS), Hungary (ADS), Poland (Monolith) and ex-Yugoslavia (Blitz).
Sofa Digital has taken rights for Latin America, Immina will release the film in Canada and Rialto has snapped it up for release in Australia and New Zealand. Further deals include China (Light Films), Indonesia (Prima), South Korea (Mobidays), India (Big Tree Entertainment) and Turkey (Mars Production), while Pathe Touch will release the film in Africa.
Advanced negotiations are underway for deals in the US and Japan.
The two films track the titular exiled leader and later French president Charles de Gaulle between 1940 and 1944, exploring his actions during the Second World War to unify the Resistance and secure France’s independence from Nazi rule.
The films were adapted from UK historian Julian Jackson’s acclaimed 2018 biography De Gaulle: A Certain Idea Of France. Pathe chairman Jerome Seydoux, Pathé Films president Ardavan Safaee and Axelle Boucaï produced the films, while co-producers are TF1 Films Production, Belvedere, Ness Films, Logical Content Ventures and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes cinema with Beside Productions.
Marie-Laure Montironi, EVP of international sales at Pathe Films, told Screen the double feature was a quick draw for buyers, with around half of the deals coming after the launch of a promo reel at the Cannes 2025 market and the remainder after buyers were able to see the finished films at a private screening in Berlin. Further sales were inked following strong reviews when De Gaulle: Resistance world premiered at this year’s Cannes in an out-of-Competition slot.
Despite a colossal budget estimated at €75m for both films, Resistance got off to an underwhelming start in French cinemas when it was released on June 3, selling around 630,000 tickets in its first two weeks. However, it has since rebounded and now stands at 1.2 million admissions and a $10m-plus gross after four weeks.
“It’s gotten a real jolt from very strong word of mouth,” Montironi suggested.
The film is still playing on 937 screens, while the second instalment, De Gaulle: Liberté, was released on June 26 on 534 screens, a rare Friday release in the country. It has clocked some 237,000 admissions in its first three days in cinemas and expects to gain momentum from the FNCF’s annual La Fête du Cinema discounted-ticket initiative, which this year runs from June 28 to July 1 with cinema tickets costing just five euros.
Entertainment Film Distributors has scheduled an August 28 release date for De Gaulle: Resistance in the UK-Ireland.
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