Cinema attendance in France regained even more strength in 2023, continuing its post-pandemic recovery by attracting 180,76 million viewers over this past year (amounting almost to an estimated € 2 billion in revenue), which is 18,9% higher than in 2022. However, things are not yet back to pre-Covid levels since the market is still in decline by 13,1% compared to the average for the 2017-2019 period. 

To this general tendency, we can add a growing polarisation, already at work for several years but now harsher than ever: it’s either success, or crushing failure. There is no longer any real in-between: viewers now bring success to two or three films, while all the others underperform. This creates great difficulties for distributors without any major successes in a year (and also impacts their financial capacity to engage on new projects). 

This is a phenomenon that affects all types of films, including the so-called French cinema of the middle (films with reasonable budgets), European feature films (which distributors are currently buying with extreme caution and which imperatively require a very noticeable premiere in a big festival), but also many French comedies with a supposedly popular cast that nevertheless struggle in cinemas. 

The elusive and unpredictable young audiences remain the centre of distributors’ reflections (and anxieties). Each approaches it with their own strategy (Pathé, for example, is betting on big, spectacular productions, but their big budgets are not without risk) while no one has yet found the magic formula in a sector that remains, no matter how much rationalising people might do, a prototype industry where the viewer’s volatile desires still escape the laws of marketing. 

The 2023 box-office is dominated by two US productions (The Super Mario Bros. Movie with 7,35 million admissions, and Barbie with 5,84 million admissions). French blockbuster Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Guillaume Canet arrives third with 4,62 million admissions.

In total, three French films figure in the annual Top 10 with the comedy Alibi.com 2 [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Philippe Lacheau (4,27 million admissions) in the 5th position, and The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Martin Bourboulon (3,43 million) in the 7th position.

Nine other French productions scored over a million admissions in 2023: the comedy 3 jours max by Tarek Boudali (1,88 million admissions), The Three Musketeers: Milady by Martin Bourboulon (1,67 million), the animated film Ladybug & Cat Noir Awakening by Jeremy Zag (1,63 million), the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Justine Triet
scheda film] by Justine Triet (1,3 million), Father & Soldier [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Mathieu Vadepied (1,18 million),  All Your Faces [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Jeanne Herry (1,16 million), The Crime Is Mine [+leggi anche:
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intervista: François Ozon
scheda film] by François Ozon (1,09 million), The Animal Kingdom [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Thomas Cailley
scheda film] by Thomas Cailley (1,05 million admissions) and On The Wandering Path [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Denis Imbert (1,04 million). 

20 French films recorded between 500,000 and 1 million admissions. Among them, we can mention Second Round [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Albert Dupontel (979,000 admissions), Sweet Little Things by Mélanie Auffret (925,000), A Difficult Year [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Olivier Nakache e Eric Tol…
scheda film] by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (900,000, a relatively poor performance for two directors usually at the very top of the box office), The Braid by Laetitia Colombani (877,000), the animated films Argonauts by David Alaux (864,000) and The Jungle Bunch: World Tour by the trio Laurent Bru - Yannick Moulin - Benoît Somville (829,000), Abbé Pierre - A Century of Devotion [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Frédéric Tellier
scheda film] by Frédéric Tellier (809,000), Bernadette [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Léa Domenach (802,000), Jeanne du Barry [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Maïwenn (761,000), Just the Two of Us [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Valérie Donzelli
scheda film] by Valérie Donzelli (668,000), Consent [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Vanessa Filho (616,000 entrées – saved after a weak opening by an unpredictable TikTok phenomenon), A Real Job by Thomas Lilti (500,000) and The Sitting Duck [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jean-Paul Salomé
scheda film] by Jean-Paul Salomé (500,000).

Worth mentioning among non-French European films: 323,000 admissions for The Old Oak [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Ken Loach, 280,000 for Fallen Leaves [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Aki Kaurimäki, 248,000 for Kidnapped [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Marco Bellocchio, 208,000 for A Brighter Tomorrow [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Nanni Moretti, and 206,000 for L’immensità [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emanuele Crialese
scheda film] by Emanuele Crialese.