‘Global exception’: France is the only country in the world to see an increase in cinema attendance in 2024

With the success of Un p’tit truc en plus, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and L’Amour Ouf, 2024 is shaping up to be a very good year for French cinema. French cinemas recorded 181.3 million screenings this year, compared to 180.4 million in 2023.

asked about France InterOlivier Hennard, interim president of the CNC, was delighted with this “very good vintage”, adding that France “This year it will be the only country in the world where more viewers will open the doors of the cinema“. The latter specifies that attendance is driven by national cinematography. French films account for 44.4% of attendance in 2024, with three national productions in the top five.

French movies are valid

On the podium, we find Artus’s film in the first placeA little too muchBiggest hit of the year with 10.8 million viewers The Count of Monte Cristo Pierre Nin is in second place with 9.3 million participants Phew love Gilles Lelouch is in fifth place with 4.8 million tickets sold to date (the film is still in theaters).

We remind you that the third and fourth places are occupied by animated films Vice-Versa 2 (with 8.4 million participants) and Vaiana 2, which has already accumulated 6 million participants.

Olivier Henrad explains:Together, these films represent almost 25 million admissions, more than doubling the three most watched French films of 2023. We have to go back almost 15 years to find such figures. This French success is also associated with low-budget films. Ten feature films with a budget of less than 4 million euros attracted more than 200,000 viewers.“

Attendance below pre-Covid levels

The CNC interim president notes that attendance in 2024 remains 12.8% below the pre-Pandemic average. French movie By comparison, it states that attendance in 2019 was 209.4 million entries.

Olivier Henrad adds that “2024 was a very mixed year. He started very badly. American films were put on hold due to strikes, so the first four months of the year were without American films.“.

But the diversity of French film production helped boost attendance. “Today, French cinema knows how to do everything and offers films of every genre, every budget and every audience.

This is the diversity and singularity of our works (Emilia Perez, twenty gods kingdomI love fu…) that explain attendance“, adds the CNC president, who sees this improvement continuing into 2025.If we have a 2025 with French films continuing their trajectory and American cinema making a comeback in recent months, we could return to pre-Covid levels.“