French box office is up 22% for the first five months of 2006 ascompared to 2005. France's National CinemaCenter (CNC) released figures on Mondaywhich put total admissions for January-May 2006 at 91.12m tickets.

The month of May alone saw an increase of 34% on the same month lastyear with 18.48m tickets sold. February still reigns as the best month of 2006,however, with 22.91m admissions for a jump of 36.7% on last year.

French films are also on the rise with 49.3% of the marketplace ascompared to 45.5% last year. This is largely thanks to the success of Patrice Leconte's Les Bronzes3: Amis Pour La Vie which has broken the mark for10m admissions.

American films meanwhile have dropped in market share with 41.2% in thefirst five months of 2006 compared with 44.9% in 2005.