'The Little Prince' - Copyright Paramount

Ahead of the Cannes Film Festival the French film market has taken a beating in the past year with foreign investment down a whopping 47% and It gets worse.

Overall investment in the French film industry fell by over 20% in 2014, with broadcasters such as Canal+ cutting back on TV deals while international co-productions also declined. 2014 was the worst performance for the industry in 13 years and film budgets also fell across the board.

With the French economy stagnant, and the euro's currency slide taking its toll on profits versus a strong U.S dollar, it's not been a great 12 months, particularly for American film producers.

Speaking with Variety, Millennium Films Chairman Avi Lerner highlighted how the European market was in bad shape, along with Russia and Japan.

Despite the bad news, this past week the CNC released its figures for the French box office showing a 7.6% increase in domestic demand for feature length films. More than 7000 films were screened in France in 2014 according to the annual report.