French theatres enjoy exceptional October

by Fabien Lemercier

10/11/2011 - With a fifth consecutive month of rising figures and the best month of October since 1982 with 20.28m admissions (+9.4% compared to the same period last year), the 2011 audience figures for French theatres stood at 166.78m admissions on October 31 (-0.9% compared with the first ten months of 2010) according to estimates by the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC). This score puts the annual audience figure record (206.3m admissions in 2010) within reach, in the wake of directorial duo Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s Untouchable [trailer], which is currently taking the box office by storm (2.2m admissions in its first week – see news).

As for market shares, French films are regaining ground with 35.6% for the first ten months of the year compared to 50.6% for US productions and 13.9% for features from other countries.

Among the non-domestic European films at the box office, Italian director Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope [trailer, film focus] continues its successful, long-term theatrical run with 671,000 admissions in eight weeks and was still showing on 114 screens last week (distributed by Le Pacte). The Skin I Live In [trailer, film focus] by Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar has attracted almost 710,000 viewers in ten weeks (Pathé Films) and Melancholia [trailer, film focus] by Denmark’s Lars von Trier has drawn over 406,000 cinemagoers in 12 weeks (Les Films du Losange). Finally, British director Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin [trailer, film focus] (Diaphana Distribution) has garnered 96,000 admissions in five weeks.

(Translated from French)