Fête du cinema: Wild card to boost admissions

22/06/2007

The 23rd Fête du cinema, a three-day event organised by the Fédération nationale des cinémas français (FNCF) that offers filmgoers a chance to see films at reduced prices in France’s 2,133 cinemas (5,362 screens), opens on Sunday. Visitors who buy one full-price ticket then have the right to a booklet-passport that gives access to all films for only €2 each, a system that has attracted between 3-4m filmgoers each year since its creation (2004 was a record year with its 4.3m admissions).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The event comes at an appropriate time to boost admissions that have been down since January. According to statistics published by the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), French theatres registered 79.7m admissions during the first five months of the year, or 12.6% less than during the same period in 2006. However, domestic productions proved the most popular with a 47.4% market share from January to May 2007 compared to 42.8% for US features.

But there could be a reversal in June with US blockbusters such as Shrek the Third (1.7m admissions from 850 screens in the first week) and Pirates of the Caribbean (4.7m admissions in one month) currently hogging the top box office spots.

Films expected to benefit the most from the Fête du cinéma are Jean Becker’s Conversations with My Gardener [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), which stars Daniel Auteuil and Jean-Pierre Darroussin and has already attracted 560,000 cinemagoers in 11 days on screens.

Several titles released after the Cannes Film Festival will also benefit from the windfall, such as The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Julian Schnabel (Best Director at Cannes this year, see article); Christophe Honoré’s Love Songs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), which garnered 240,000 filmgoers in four weeks; Barbet Schroeder’s documentary Terror’s Advocate [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see article), surfing on a wave of success thanks to excellent word-to-mouth (54,000 admissions in two weeks); Lola Doillon’s Just About Love? [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news, 35,000 admissions in five days); Bruno Merle’s Heroes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see article); and Inside [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by directing duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo.

Other films likely to draw filmgoers are new French films Martin Valente’s Fragile(s) [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; the acclaimed 13 m2, directed by and starring Barthélémy Grossmann; and Quentin Dupieux’s offbeat comedy Steak [+see also:
trailer
film profile].