08/07/2013 - A decrease of 6.3 % in the number of spectators for the first six months of 2013 in comparison to 2012. A 37.3 % market share for French films

The attendance in French theatres continues its roller coaster ride. After a decrease of 10.6% in January and 21% in February, followed by an improvement in March with +15.5 %, a further decline in April with -19.7 % and a recovery in May with + 7.8 %, the month of June (13.85 million spectators) shows a decline of 5% in comparison to the same period in 2012, according to the estimates published by the CNC. The total of the first 2013 semester adds up to 95.45 million admissions, showing a decline of 6.3 % in comparison to last year.

As for market shares, French films represent 37.3 % for the first six months of 2013 versus 52.9 % for American productions and 9.8 % for feature films from other countries. A share of attendance taking place with the media debate in the background about the clear decline in the attractiveness of less innovative French comedies which receive funding relatively easily at the expense of more ambitious works. The question is evidently not about challenging the unifying potential of comedies (one of them, Les profs, actually leads the best French results for 2013 with 3.85 million admissions), but rather to analyse the merits of “over-producing” this genre (and maybe over-funding and monopolizing screens) with a myriad of titles which hardly attract the public to the theatres (at least not at the scale of the funds engaged in their production).  

(Translated from French)