25/06/2003

The 2003 edition of the Fête du Cinéma in Paris was something of a disappointment with just 3million tickets sold over the three-day period, and well below last year’s 3.6 million and the 3.1 million of 2001. Created to galvanize attendance over the slack summer months and the poor box office performance reported by Gallic exhibitors for the first half of this year, the Fête was undermined by a series of concurrent events.
The weather, the French Music Festival that was held on Saturday 22 June and the lack of a tent-pole release were some of the reasons given. According to FNCF, the French Federation of Cinemas who organised the event from 22-24 June, "Sunday got off to a later start that people were used to" even if attendance did subsequently pick up and grow steadily over the Monday and Tuesday. The Fête du Cinéma resulted in a "threefold increase in cinema attendance with respect to the weeks that immediately preceded the event" and succeeded in launching the summer season.
Several French titles selected for the event, like Le Mystère de la chambre jaune, Le Bison and Les Triplettes de Belleville [+see also:
trailer
film profile] competed well against Hollywood titles.
Unfortunately the 1999 record of 4.3 million tickets sold still stands. It is fair to speculate whether the variety of discounted events on offer, like "It’s summer, Paris & Cinema" in July and August 2002 and " Paris, the Art and Arthouse Capital" in October 2002 have perhaps undermined the potential and magical appeal of the celebrated "Fête du Cinéma".

(Translated from French)