The French box office rose 0.5% year-on-year in 2024 to 181.3 million admissions for a combined total of about $1.36 billion, according to figures from France's National Cinema Center (CNC).
While the overall admissions figure for 2024 remained about 12.8% below pre-pandemic levels, the results were encouraging, the authority said.
He noted that the pre-pandemic gap had closed in the past eight months to 2.7%, and that the numbers were better than the US and other similar markets in Europe, such as the UK, which it said saw a 1% decline in revenue, and Spain, where it was… There is a decline of 7% year-on-year.
The authority said that the biggest reason for the celebration was the performance of local films, which constituted 44% of acceptances, compared to 36.7% for American films.
This is the highest market share for French films since 2008 when Danny Beaune became a hit Welcome to the sticks and Asterix at the Olympic Gamespushed domestic films to a 45.5% share, far exceeding the pre-pandemic average of 37.2%.
The best-performing French films were a surprise headline (10 million entries), The Count of Monte Cristo (9.1 m), Heartbeat (4.7 m), Mr. Aznavour (2 m), Oh no no! (1.9 m), Open season (1.9 m) and Marching band (1.5 m).
The best performing American picture was Vice versa 2which attracted 8.26 million spectators for an approximate gross of $62 million.
Local arthouse fare also did well with awards season winner and Jury Prize winner at Cannes Emilia Perez Attracting a million spectators while François Ozon When autumn comes More than 600 thousand tickets sold
Other local independent titles with top results included Cannes titles The story of Solomon And the opening film The second law – which attracted around 500,000 spectators each – and a low budget Jolo and Richie And rural drama Venet Docswith over 400,000 entries each.
“Comparing these results with all results in similar countries is the best evidence of the technical and industrial excellence of our model of cultural exception,” said Olivier Henriard, acting president of CNC.
“The diversity and uniqueness of our work – which includes historical dramas, generational stories, musical films, social comedies, documentaries and animated films – is what explains the recovery in overall attendance and unparalleled market share of our national films in the world.”
Top ten films at the French box office of 2024 (numbers as of 12/29/2024)
Title/admission
- A little something extra10.31 PM (French)
- The Count of Monte Cristo9.13 m (French)
- Vice versa 28.26 million (US)
- Moana 26.43 million (US)
- Heartbeat4.73 m (French)
- Despicable me 44.32 million (US)
- Sand Dunes: Part 24.13 m (US)
- Deadpool Wolverine3.69 million (US)
- The second wrestler2.87 million (US)
- Planet of the Apes: New Kingdom2.50 m (US)
