France's annual Spring promotional drive 'Printemps Au Cinema' got off to a good start yesterday (Sunday 14 March) with 1.2 million tickets sold at the box office. That represents a 15% increase on the same day last year and is the biggest single day total in the five year history of the event.

The three day campaign (14-16 Mar) is organised by the French National Cinema Federation (FNCF) and sees ticket prices slashed across the board to Euros 3.50.

The FNCF attributes the initial success to the wide range of new films currently on offer. These include Along Came Polly, Big Fish, Podium, the previous week's number one Malabar Princesse and strongly-opening first film Une Vie A T'Attendre.