18/02/2003

January 2003 saw a 14.1 per cent drop in French film attendance at home with respect to the same month last year. According to a report published on 17 February by the CNC, a total of 14.2 million tickets were sold for local productions.
The reasons for the drop in numbers is the lack of good French films. This time last year, titles like Tanguy (seen 4.3 million tickets sold) and Le peuple migrateur (2.7million) were in theatres; this year just a couple of European titles, like like Crialese’s Respiro [+see also:
trailer
film profile], distracted filmgoers’ attention from major US blockbusters like Harry Potter 2, The Lord of the Rings and Gangs of New York.
There was just one French hit last month: Le Papillon, directed by Philippe Muyl and starring Michel Serrault, and seen by around 900,000 people. The film was produced by Alicéléo, coproduced by France 2 Cinéma and Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, and distributed by Rezo Films.

In spite of this disappointing news French films have a 32.3 per cent share of the domestic market - the quota is almost the same as that of last year and the excellent performance of Taxi 3, seen by some 3,5 million French filmgoers since its 29 January release, will likely improve matters considerably.

(Translated from French)