16/12/2005

With a drop of 3,5%, the month of November did not escape the tendency observed all through the year 2004 with fewer admissions in the French cinemas. According to the figures published yesterday by the National Film Centre (CNC), the first 11 months of 2005 managed 152,2 million admissions, a drop of 13,1% compared to the same period in 2004. However, there are hopes of finishing the year on a positive note since the first two weeks of December have registered a rise in admissions of around 65% and 3%, with more than 9 million spectators heading for the theatres. The record year 2005 (194,4 million admissions) will no doubt be remembered as one of the best souvenirs, but the objective for the film professionals is to reach the total for 2003, 174,15 million spectators. Also, another satisfying figure is the excellent place in terms of market share for French films, estimated at 38,9% from the 1st of January 2004 against 38,7% for the first 11 months of 2003. For its part, American production had 49,5% in 2004 against 46,6% for the year before.

Among the reasons for the drop in 2004 in spectators, bad allocation of releases all year long with notably an anaemic holiday period and bottlenecks of prints during favourable periods has made CNC react: "From 1996 to 2004, the number of films released rose by around 40% and in the same period, the number of prints in circulation more than doubled. The number of spectators per print did not however rise. We are seeing a phenomenon of obstruction in the theatres and the shortening of the duration of exhibition which is reducing the chances of a film reaching its public". This has pushed Véronique Cayla, director general of the CNC to ask Jean-Pierre Leclerc (author in 2002 of a report on the necessary evolution of the aid to production system) to set up a mission of expertise and mediation on the relations between exploitation and distribution. Charged with gaining the opinions of the professionals concerned, and to aid the improvement of the conditions for the release of films in theatres and to put in place a good conduct code between exhibitors and distributors (the protocol signed in May 2003 by the exhibitors of the FNCF and the distributors of the FNDF was never really put into proper effect), Jean-Pierre Leclerc will give his conclusions at the end of April 2006.

(Translated from French)