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BOX OFFICE France

Admissions rise 40.6% rise in November

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The saying that economic crises are good for cinema admissions seems to be borne out in France. According to data gathered by the National Film Centre (CNC), there were 18.21m admissions in November, an increase of 40.6% compared to the same period in 2007. This is the best November result for the past ten or so years.

The total so far for 2008 stands at 171.05m viewers, which is +6.7% over the first 11 months of the previous year. Over the last nine years, the month of December has fluctuated between 17-24m cinemagoers; it is thus possible to forecast a 2008 total of over 190m admissions, edging towards the 2004 record (195.53 million).

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These pleasing box office results go hand in hand with a 46% market share for French films since the start of 2008 (36.9% for the same period in 2007), compared to 43.9% for US productions (49.2% from January-November 2007). This dominance of French features has been possible this autumn thanks to a varied selection of genre films.

These include Jean-François Richet’s diptych about gangster Jacques Mesrine (Public Enemy Number One (Part 1) [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
with almost 2.3m admissions and Public Enemy Number One (Part 2) [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which currently clocks in at 1.27m viewers); Olivier Mégaton’s action film Transporter 3 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(960,000 admissions in 12 days); and the comedies Le crime est notre affaire [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(“Crime Is Our Business”) by Pascal Thomas (1.15 million) and Vilaine [+see also:
trailer
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(“Nasty”) by Jean-Patrick Benes and Allan Mauduit (850,000).

The following auteur works have also performed well: Laurent Cantet’s The Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile
]
(1.5m admissions), Agnès Jaoui’s Let It Rain [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(990,000) and Martin Provost’s Séraphine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(450,000).

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(Translated from French)

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