France's National Cinema Centre has released figures for August box office which add up to good news for the local industry.

Following a rotten year for movie going, numbers were up in August by 5.2% compared with last year.

August saw 14.1 million tickets sold making it one of the best months of 2003. Compared with 2002 the box-office has seen a drop almost every month.

In all, box office is currently at 113 million tickets sold which reflects a drop of 7.5% on 2002.

There is good news for French films as well. Local productions have grabbed 38.9% of the marketplace since the beginning of the year which represents a slight jump from 2002's 37.9%

Despite a poor summer, American films' market share has risen to 51% against 49% last year.