09/06/2009

With 85.72m admissions for the first five months of 2009, audience figures in French theatres have dropped by 5.5% compared to the same period in 2008, according to estimations published by the National Film Centre (CNC).

However, spring has brought good news, for April and May saw the number of viewers rise by 12% and 23.4% respectively, compared to the same months in 2008. This has increased the annual total so far, reducing the gap with respect to last year’s results, which were boosted by the phenomenal hit Welcome to the Sticks [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The market share for French films also rose again to 41.1% during the first four months of 2009, compared to 44% for US productions. Much more striking is the upturn enjoyed by features of other nationalities, whose market share increased to 14.9%, compared to 8% for the same period last year.

At the box office, European films currently take pride of place alongside US blockbusters. Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] has attracted 595,000 viewers after 19 days on release (Pathé Distribution - 408 screens in its third week); and Danish director Niels Arden Oplev’s Swedish production The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Niels Arden Oplev
interview: Søren Stærmose
film profile] is nearing 1m admissions (987,000) after five weeks (UGC Distribution - 509 screens).

UK filmmaker Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cannes 2009
Ken Loach
interview: Steve Evets - actor
film profile] has drawn 260,000 viewers in 12 days (Diaphana - 374 screens), while The Boat That Rocked by fellow Brit Richard Curtis clocks in at 527,000 admissions after four weeks (Studio Canal - 186 screens).

As for domestic productions, spring has been marked by the success of Michel Hazanavicius’ OSS 117: Lost in Rio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2.5m admissions in two months - Gaumont ); Philippe Lioret’s Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile] (1.16m viewers in 12 weeks - Mars Distribution); Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (994,000 admissions in six weeks - distribution Warner); Bertrand Tavernier’s In the Electric Mist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Tavernier
film profile] (832,000 viewers in seven weeks - TFM Distribution); and Lucien Jean-Baptiste’s surprise hit Meet the Elisabethz [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (1.6m admissions in ten weeks - Mars Distribution).

(Translated from French)