Covid-19: French cinema attendance falls by nearly 70% in 2020

The attendance of cinemas in France, closed or forced to reduce their capacities for a good part of the year, fell by 69.4% in 2020, announced Wednesday the National Cinema Center (CNC).

According to a report from the organization of the profession, cinemas recorded only 65.10 million admissions, against 213.07 million in 2019. "The year 2020 is marked by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which led to the closure of cinemas twice for 162 days in total. Over the whole of 2020, attendance reached 30% of that observed in 2019 ", underlines the CNC in its annual report.

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While on average, every year since 2010, around twenty films reach or exceed two million admissions, there were only three in 2020:

by Christopher Nolan (2.3 million admissions),

by Sam Mendes (2.2 million) and

by Jeff Fowler (2.1 million).

"Twelve films achieve more than a million admissions, against nearly fifty during the decade. No film achieves more than three million admissions in 2020", adds the National Center of Cinema and animated image.

A more limited decline in French films

Even if the greatest successes are Hollywood, overall French films recorded a more limited decline (-60.7%) than American films (-76.7%) or other nationalities (-69.4% ).

Thus, French films (29.2 million viewers) totaled more admissions in 2020 than American films (26.6 million).

"This phenomenon had not occurred for 14 years, in 2006. The market share of French films (44.9%) is thus higher than that of American films (40.8%) and that of films by other nationalities (14.3%) ", notes the professional organization.