09/10/2003

There’s a glimmer of hope for the French operators, distributors and producers following a rise of 13.2% in audiences at the French cinema during September. In fact some of the statistics published on October 7 by the Centre National de la Cinématographie have registered an audience of more than 10.7 million, which should finally put an end to the haemorrhaging of audiences that started at the beginning of 2003.

From January 1, 2003 French cinemas have registered attendance figures of 124.2 million, which is 5.6% less than the same period in 2002. But the increase in audiences for September seem to herald a more positive third quarter (+1.5%) after the worrying results obtained in the first quarter (-8.8%) and the second (- 7.5%). In addition, the 13.2% rise in September follows on from the figures for August which were already showing an upward trend (+5.5%), which may wel put the smile back on the face of French cinema. As far as the market share is concerned, French films now have 38.3% as opposed to 51.2% for American productions.

The films that have led to these good results for September include the German hit Good bye Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] by Wolfgang Becker distributed by Océan Films, which has been seen by more than 600,000 people in just under four weeks on release. Other films that have done well include Love me if you Dare [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Yann Samuel starring Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard, distributed in 279 prints by Mars Films, which has registered an audience of 779,000 in less than 3 weeks; Lili by Claude Miller with an audience of 550,000 and the British film Dirty Pretty Thing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Stephen Frears with an audience of 245,000.

(Translated from French)