13/04/2010

It has been an excellent start to the year for audience figures in French theatres, which attracted 58.6m viewers during the first three months of 2010, i.e. 12.5% more than the same period in 2009, according to estimates published by the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC).

This first quarter, which is the second best start to the year for the past 30 years (behind the 61.75m in 2008 and ahead of the 57.03m in 2001), saw audience figures rise every month compared to the previous year, with March closing at +4.3% for 18.51m admissions.

However, the market’s dynamism has above all boosted US productions, which captured 54.8% of admissions, compared to 34.1% for French films and 11.1% for features from other countries.

Currently at the box office, Pascal Chaumeil’s Heartbreaker [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] continues to enjoy a successful run and has amassed 2.57m admissions after almost four weeks on release. Roselyne Bosch’s The Round-Up [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has also attracted over 2.5m viewers in five weeks, while Richard Berry’s 22 Bullets [+see also:
trailer
film profile] clocks in at 925,000 viewers in three weeks.

Also doing well is Géraldine Nakache and Hervé Mimran’s Tout Ce Qui Brille [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“All That Glitters”), which has garnered 860,000 admissions in almost three weeks. Finally, among the non-domestic European films, German director Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] has surpassed the 200,000 admissions mark after four weeks on release.

(Translated from French)