12/06/2012 - French cinema has been shining since the beginning of 2012. Rust and Bone and What's in a Name? confirm the trend

With 87.15 million box office sales during the first five months of 2012, the number of box office sales in France has risen by 5.4% compared to the same period in 2011. After an exceptional April with 48.5%, May confirmed this trend with 16.51 million viewers (+5.1%), but these good results must be put into perspective, since the five first months of 2011 had been disappointing (-11%) and we will have to wait until the second half of 2012 to see whether audience numbers can stay at the high level reached in the last 12 months, which brought in 221.08 million box office sales.

National film production has reason to smile, as French films have reached 47.5 % of the market share from January 1 until May 31, 2012 (38.8 % for the same period 2011) against 41.1 % for American feature films and 11.5 % for other films. A French domination which in May was boosted by the Cannes competitor Rust and Bone, by Jacques Audiard (review) which attracted 1.42 million viewers in 26 days (UGC distribution in 577 copies) and only lost 1% in the latest weekly ranking. But the great surprise of this spring came from the comedy What's in a Name? by the Matthieu Delaporte - Alexandre de la Patellière duo, which surpassed the 3 million box office sales mark in seven weeks (Pathé with 424 copies). Also worth noting the good start made by Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern Grand Soir (see the review) with 147,000 box office sales in five days (Ad Vitam with 260 copies).

(Translated from French)