03/06/2005

Knuckling under despite the roaring success of Stars Wars – Episode 3 (4,7 million spectators in two weeks), the French share of the market in 2005 is maintaining a very high level. National production, in fact, represented around 43% of tickets since the beginning of the year against 51% for American films, 4% for other European films and 2% for productions from the rest of the world. As for overall attendance, 2005 has registered until now a drop of 12% in audience figures and less (just over 72 million in total to 30 May) than the same period last year, a drop that is relative since 2004 and in particular the first quarter achieved results that had not been seen in 20 years.

The big French audience success of 2005 was Brice de Nice with Jean Dujardin, Elodie Bouchez and Clovis Cornillac, which achieved sales of 4 million tickets in eight weeks (TFM Distribution /438 prints). On the other hand, the Cannes selection Lemming [+see also:
trailer
film profile] from Dominik Moll has so far failed to live up to the expectations of its distributor and producer Diaphana with only 380 000 in three weeks (387 prints still in circulation). At a more modest level Live and Become [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Denis Carot
interview: Didar Domehri
interview: Radu Mihaileanu
film profile] by Radu Mihaileanu remains in the Top 20 due to word of mouth, (390 000 tickets in 9 weeks, an astonishing stability for the 103 prints currently distributed by des Les Films du Losange) and the France-Belgium-Austria co-production Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper (283 000 spectators in 13 weeks for the documentary distributed by Ad Vitam spread over 66 screens).
Finally, it’s worth noting the exceptional success achieved by the Spanish comedy Crimen Ferfecto by Alex de la Iglesia which attracted 93,000 fans in 3 weeks, with a distribution handled by La Fabrique de Films, beginning with 60 copies then rising to 67 then to 68.

(Translated from French)