The glass could be seen as half-empty or half-full, depending on how you look at the analysis, but despite dealing out some heavy blows, the pandemic hasn’t totally annihilated French cinemas, which closed 2021 having recorded 96.17 million admissions, according to the estimations of the CNC. Although it’s a figure up 47.4% on the dark year that was 2020, these attendance levels actually reveal a 55% decrease on 2019. However, if we only take into account the period in which French cinemas were open, from the beginning of June to the end of December, this drop falls to 23.2% compared to 2019, while December (boosted by Spider-Man: No Way Home) recorded viewer numbers markedly close to the usual monthly figures. They’re results which make of France the most resilient European country in the big-screen market.

That said, the situation is clearly anything but straightforward, over and above the twists and turns of the healthcare predicament (the surge of the Omicron variant we’ve been seeing over the New Year will inevitably impact attendance rates, which have more or less stabilised, but, unlike the previous episodes we’ve seen, cinemas are staying open this time round). Distributors have been forced to "destock at all costs", releasing films which were previously blocked during the long periods of cinema closures, a backlog worsened by the arrival of new productions (owing to the fact that French film sets got back up and running quickly in 2020, which we’re thankful for). Not only has this rush of new films placed a great number of titles targeting the same audience in direct competition with one another (especially in terms of arthouse cinema, notably movies approved by major festivals and first feature films), but the demographics of returning audiences have further amplified the problem because, unlike young people who haven’t shown any reticence in finding their way back to the big screen, the over-40s, who account for the lion’s share of aficionados of arthouse film, have shown themselves to be far less enthusiastic to return (either due to worries over Covid, the new habit of staying at home and the associated growing addiction to SVOD platforms, or the choice of other going-out options – restaurants, outdoor eating and drinking spaces, etc.).

The result of this is an increase in the “winner takes all" phenomenon across a market which is battling it out for a reduced pool of viewers. A guesstimate circulating among professionals is that "blockbuster films" have underperformed by 20-30% compared to the usual market result, "mid-sized films" by 50% and small ones by 70%. But given that arthouse works mainly reside within the latter two categories, their distributors (who are, generally speaking, independent) are paying a very heavy price at present, given that they must pay the Minimum Guarantees which were promised to producers on the basis of admissions forecasts made before the health crisis and whose actual results fall far below expectations. It’s a heavy loss which is clearly having an impact on their financial wellbeing and their ability to invest in new projects. So, whilst cinemas have held up relatively well in France throughout the successive waves of the health storm, many of the vessels flanking the main ship are having to improvise and their crews are plugging gaps and baling out in the hope of better days.

In terms of market shares, French films accounted for 40.8 % of cinema admissions in 2021, as opposed to the 42.4 % enjoyed by American productions and 16.8 % by feature films from other countries.

American productions dominated France’s 2021 box-office podium, thanks to Spider-Man: No Way Home (5.6 million admissions), No Time to Die [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (4 million) and Dune [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (3.1 million), while three French feature films stand out in the year’s Top 10: Kaamelott – First Instalment [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Alexandre Astier (4th place -  2.64 million admissions), The Stronghold [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Cédric Jimenez (6th – 2.2 million) and Les Tuche 4 [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Olivier Baroux (7th - 2 million).

In total, nine French films exceeded the one-million-admissions mark, including OSS 117: From Africa With Love [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Nicolas Bedos (14th place – 1.6 million), The Bodin’s in the Land of Smile [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Frédéric Forestier (15th – 1.54 million), Eiffel [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Martin Bourboulon (16th – 1.46 million), Aline, The Voice of Love [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Valérie Lemercier (20th – 1.28 million), Black Box [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Yann Gozlan (21st – 1.18 million) and The Wolf and the Lion [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Gilles de Maistre (22nd – 1.16 million).

Other French productions’ results worth mentioning are those of Xavier Giannoli’s Lost Illusions [+lee también:
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entrevista: Xavier Giannoli
ficha de la película] (22nd – 803,000), Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (326,000 entrées), Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane [+lee también:
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entrevista: Julia Ducournau, Vincent L…
ficha de la película] (303,000), Marie Amiguet and Vincent Munier’s documentary The Velvet Queen [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marie Amiguet y Vincent Mu…
ficha de la película] (302,000 since its release on 15 December), Leos Carax’s Annette [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (283,000), Catherine Corsini’s The Divide [+lee también:
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entrevista: Catherine Corsini
ficha de la película] (265,000), François Ozon’s Everything Went Fine [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (255,000), Patrick Imbert’s animated title The Summit of the Gods [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (203,000) and Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (182,000).

The category of non-national European feature films is dominated by Florian Zeller’s majority British production The Father [+lee también:
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entrevista: Florian Zeller
ficha de la película] (38th – 586,000) and Parallel Mothers [+lee también:
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making of
ficha de la película] by Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (41st – 548,000). Likewise worth a mention are The Worst Person in the World [+lee también:
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entrevista: Joachim Trier
ficha de la película] by Norway’s Joachim Trier (202,000), the animated film Wolfwalkers [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by the Irish duo Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart (184,000), and Compartment N°. 6 [+lee también:
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entrevista: Juho Kuosmanen
ficha de la película] by Finland’s Juho Kuosmanen (154,000).