11/09/2009

With 36.15m entries in July and August, the French box-office recorded the best summer season in 30 years according to estimates from the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC). This clearly surpasses the best performance in 2004 with 31.3m viewers, while entries were 28m in 2008. This sizzling summer for the big screen has brought 2009 attendance to 133.34m, up 2.9 % compared to the first eight months of 2008. The year-on-year figures (from September 2008 to August 2009) are more positive again with 193.2m tickets sold (up 6.8%) against 181.06 for the same period in 2007/08.

July saw admissions literally explode with 13.29m filmgoers flocking to screens, up 56.1% when compared to July 2008. This upward trend was confirmed in August, in more reasonable proportions, with 15.41m filmgoers (+4.5%).

As regards market share, French films accounted for 33.7% of admissions in the first eight months of 2009 (a net fall compared to the exceptional year of 2008 with 45.8%) against 45.6% for US productions (down slightly) and 16.5% for films of other nationalities (up significantly).

Boosted by US animation films Ice Age 3 (7.6m) and Là-haut (3.7m), as well as by British co-production Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by David Yates (5.92m), the summer season has also been good for German co-production The Reader [+see also:
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film profile] by British helmer Stephen Daldry (687,000) and Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
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film profile] (currently 1.9m viewers). French features that have done particularly well include Riad Sattouf’s The French Kissers [+see also:
film review
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film profile] (880,000), Mona Achache’s Le hérisson [+see also:
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film profile] (“The Hedgehog”) (754,000), Catherine Corsini’s Leaving [+see also:
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film profile] (492,000) and not forgetting Gabriel Julien-Laferrière’s Neuilly sa mère ! [+see also:
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film profile] (which has just reached the 1.5m mark). Meanwhile, 2009 Cannes Critics’ Week laureate Nassim Amaouche’s Goodbye Gary [+see also:
film review
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film profile] (100,000) is also doing well.

(Translated from French)