10/09/2012 - A clear drop in admissions over July and August questions the choice of films released this summer in a generally tense economic climate

With 132.41 million admissions during the first eight months of 2012, admissions in French cinemas dropped by 1.7 % compared to the same period in 2011 according to National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) estimations.

Overall figures for 2012 so far remain high, but bad results for July (16.95 million admissions, a 15.5% drop) and August (13.78 million admissions, a 20.7% drop and the worst month of August since 2005) have giving rise to a few questions. Beyond the impact of a generally tense economic climate that probably makes leisure consumption more selective, July and August were also notable for the feeble selection of films on offer in cinemas, not so much in quantity but in quality, while autumn looks set to be chock-a-block with promising new offerings, which might prove fatal to the survival of some of them and lead distributors to admit to wasted summer opportunities.

Apart from the American productions, very few titles did well this summer. These included two films released on June 27 (French comedy Happiness Never Comes Alone [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (photo) with 1.7 million admissions and Cannes awardee The Angels’ Share [+see also:
film review
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interview: Ken Loach
film profile] by English filmmaker Ken Loach with 678,000 admissions), the surprising Porn in the Hood [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which has just hit the one-million mark in its ninth week) and Belgian animation film Sammy 2 [+see also:
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film profile] by Ben Stassen and Vincent Kesteloot (556,000 admissions in three weeks).

As for market shares, French films made 39.1 % of admissions in the first eight months of 2012, compared to 49.2% for American productions and 11.7% for feature films from other countries.

Currently in the box office, Belgian filmmaker Joachim Lafosse’s Our Children [+see also:
film review
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interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] has made 98,000 admissions and British filmmaker Rufus Norris’ Broken [+see also:
film review
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film profile] has made 60,000. Both films were released on August 22. Pascal Thomas’ Associés contre le crime has sold 342,000 tickets in 12 days, and Xavier Giannoli’s Venice contender Superstar [+see also:
film review
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interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile] has made a slow start with 129,000 admissions in five days.

(Translated from French)