Despite the start of the year being impacted by the dearth of US films on release (following the Hollywood strikes) and by a summer period made all the more complicated by the Olympic Games in Paris, attendance levels in French theatres in 2024 confirmed (with a total of 181.3 million tickets sold) the persistent allure of the cinema among the country’s general public, flying in the face of the gravediggers who had been a tad too hasty to bury the film industry in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a reminder, French theatres racked up 65.3 million admissions during the 2020 world health crisis before gradually recovering (rising to 95.5 million in 2021, 152.1 million in 2022 and 180.4 million in 2023). And it was the success of French productions, which has proven unequalled in Europe, with a 44.4% market share, that enabled 2024 attendance levels to stay on course.

Nevertheless, the period was still tense among distributors and exhibitors when it came to ensuring access to theatres and to films. Some slippages on the authorised volume of exceptionally organised event-film releases (such as that for the documentary Kaizen) and ever-enlarging preview-screening campaigns (thus leading to a massive number of screens being occupied) have been causing more intense infighting. And that’s not to mention a polarisation that has become even more acute between huge success stories attracting the vast majority of audiences and dismal failures that have proven particularly painful (especially in the arthouse film sector).

French films dominated the 2024 box office in France: in pole position in the rankings is the unexpected phenomenon A Little Something Extra by Artus, with 10.8 million admissions, closely followed by The Count of Monte-Cristo [+leggi anche:
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Seven other French productions drew in over one million viewers in 2024: the biopic Monsieur Aznavour [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Emmanuel Courcol
scheda film] by Emmanuel Courcol (1.6 million), Cat and Dog by Reem Kherici (1.14 million), Emilia Pérez [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Jacques Audiard (1.07 million) and Autumn and the Black Jaguar by Gilles de Maistre (1 million).

Among the other French flicks that performed strongly, we could mention An Ordinary Case [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by François Ozon (674,000), Souleymane’s Story [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Boris Lojkine
scheda film] by Boris Lojkine (514,000), The Second Act [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Anne Fontaine (414,000).

Notable scores among the European productions and co-productions include those for The Zone of Interest [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Jonathan Glazer (790,000 admissions), Conclave by Edward Berger (778,000), There is Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi (647,000), Poor Things [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Suzy Bemba
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
scheda film] by Yorgos Lanthimos (608,000), The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Directors Talks @ European…
intervista: Mohammad Rasoulof
scheda film] by Mohammad Rasoulof (568,000), The Substance [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Coralie Fargeat
scheda film] by Coralie Fargeat (530,000) and Flow [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gints Zilbalodis
intervista: Red Carpet @ European Film…
scheda film] by Gints Zilbalodis (501,000).