20/01/2003

EuroPalacesis France’s leading theatrical exhibition circuit. It includes the Pathé and theGaumont groups. In 2002, 40.6million French filmgoers saw a film in a EuroPalaces cinema.
In its en-of-year report published on 17 January, EuroPalaces confirmed their pre-eminent position as France’s leading exhibitor: 22 per cent of all tickets sold in France are for a EuroPalace cinema. The group’s reported turnover for 2002 was Euros290m, a 4.3 increase on 2001.
EuroPalaces has 67 cinemas (a total of 640 screens) situated in 39 cities, and the group initiated an intense strategy of expansion both in France (where four new multi-screens opened in 2002 in Ivry, Bordeaux, Carré Senart and Belfort), and Europe (with a new multiscreen in Florence and Turin), one in Rotterdam. Construction work has also begun on a new complex in Zurich, Switzerland.
The most popular single screen cinema of the entire EuroPalace circuit is the Pathé Belle Epine outside Paris: 1.5 million visitors in 2002 and also the fifth most popular cinema in France. The best-performing multi-screen complexes are the UGC Ciné Cité (situated in Bercy, Salles and Rosny) with an attendance of 3.1 milioni, while the provincial leader is the Kinepolis Lomme, near Lille.

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(Translated from French)