France's eighth annual springtime cinema promotion, the Printemps du Cinema, this week boasted 2.6 million tickets sold over three days. The figures match those for 2006's event which was a record year.

The scheme sees ticket prices slashed to $4.4 (Euros 3.50) from Sunday untol Tuesday for all films throughout the country. Sunday's sales were up 8% on last year and scored a record 1.2 million tickets. Monday and Tuesday, however, were down 5% on 2006.

Organised by the National Cinema Federation (FNCF), the event was boosted by the recent release of Curse Of The Golden Flower , Music And Lyrics , Freedom Writers , Crank and the continued runs of La Vie En Rose , The Lives Of Others and Michou d'Auber .

Top 10 films for the week March 14-20.

1 La Vie En Rose 447 430

2 Curse Of The Golden Flower 427 400

3 Music And Lyrics 414 487

4 Contre-Enquête 346 616

5 Taxi 4 224 210

6 Michou d'Auber 211 195

7 Freedom Writers 163 878

8 The Lives Of Others 132 246

9 Breaking And Entering 131 227

10 Crank 127 061