The return of the French to cinemas continued in 2023

Europe1 .fr with AFP 17:29 pm, January 02, 2024

Relief in French cinemas: the return of spectators continues at a good pace after the Covid pandemic, with 180.76 million admissions in 2023, an 18.9% increase in attendance compared to 2022, according to the CNC on Tuesday. "Attendance in French cinemas in 2023 confirms the powerful momentum set in motion last year," said Dominique Boutonnat, president of the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image, in a statement.

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While the year that has just ended represents a further rebound compared to the 152.02 million admissions in 2022 (+59.2% compared to 2021), the results remain 13.1% below the average for the years 2017 to 2019, which were among the best in fifty years for French cinema (207.95 million). France, where health restrictions in cinemas were lifted in 2023, "achieved the best recovery among comparable countries thanks to the diversity of works offered, particularly French, and the commitment of our cinemas", also notes Dominique Boutonnat.

The top 5 most popular films are American blockbusters ("Super Mario Bros", "Barbie", "Avatar: The Way of Water", which exceeded 5 million admissions, and "Oppenheimer") but two French productions exceeded 4 million: "Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom" (4th in the ranking with 4.45 million) and "Alibi.com 2" (6th with 4.18 million). "Super Mario Bros. The Movie," directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, has been the biggest hit, with 7.15 million admissions since its release on April 5.

Good health of French films

"What really worked were the films that had very clear narratives," Eric Marti, a specialist at audience analysis firm Comscore, told AFP on Friday. The market share of French films remained at 39.8% (71.9 million admissions), compared with 41.3% of American films (74.7 million). "We are one of the countries with the highest market share for local cinema, far ahead of the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy," the CNC told AFP.

Impacted by the health crisis and then in 2023 by the strike of screenwriters and actors in Hollywood, the American offer has however "not returned to the volume of releases of the pre-Covid years with 81 films (68 in 2022), compared to 127 films on average each year over the period 2017 to 2019", the body recalls in its press release.

With the two parts of "The Three Musketeers" (nearly 5 million admissions combined), the animated children's film "Miraculous" (1.6 million), the Palme d'Or winner "Anatomy of a Fall" (1.2 million) and "Tirailleurs" starring Omar Sy (1.1 million) among the most popular French films, the past year has been "gratifying, since the diversity of French successes shows that all audiences have returned to cinemas". adds Eric Marti.

A great summer

In detail, attendance equalled its pre-health crisis level in April (18.5 million admissions, +0.1% compared to the 2017-2019 average) and came even closer in May (11.2 million, -2.5%). The summer was particularly good, driven by the simultaneous releases of the highly anticipated "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" (13.8 million, +9.3% in July). The rest was "more difficult with levels around 20% lower than before the crisis, in particular due to the Rugby World Cup", according to the CNC.

In a context of high inflation, the pricing operations of the Printemps du cinéma and the Fête du cinéma "met with great success with two weeks of more than 3.5 million admissions". By way of comparison, at the end of November 2023, Germany recorded admissions of 83 million admissions (-14% compared to the 2017-2019 average), Italy 63 million (-22%) and Spain 68 million (-24%), according to Comscore estimates shared by the CNC. The U.S. market is still 21% behind in terms of revenue and the United Kingdom is 13% behind.