Isabelle Huppert and an adorable crime-fighting bunny and fox were not enough to resuscitate the ailing French box office in November, with CNC estimates revealing a 20.8% drop in ticket sales compared to the same month last year.
Cinema attendance reached 14.1 million admissions in November, a gross of approximately €105m based on an average ticket price of €7.40. Excluding 2021, it marks the worst November since 2007 (13.1 million admissions).
November 2025’s box office was led by Disney’s Zootopia 2, which earned the title of best first-week performance in France so far this year, racking up 7.3 million admissions following its November 26 release.
Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In The World, starring Huppert as fictionalised L’Oreal heir Liliane Bettencourt, took the second spot for the month with 867,000 admissions for Haut et Court. It opened on October 29.
SND’s Now You See Me 3 managed 828,100 admissions, followed by Francois Ozon’s Venice premiere The Stranger, which notched up 712,000 admissions for Gaumont.
Studiocanal’s comedy T’As Pas Change followed with 686,000 admissions, and the distributor’s big-budget near-future-set thriller Dog 51, directed by Cedric Jimenez, trailed just behind with 578,000, adding to its total 1.4 million tally.
The figures follow October’s 16.3% drop to 12.8 million, the worst month of October since 2007, excluding the pandemic.
Bright spot
On a positive note, Dominik Moll’s Cannes competition title Case 137 started strong with 380,000 admissions for Haut et Court since its November 19 release, and fellow Cannes premiere Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life sold some 250,000 tickets in its first week for Ad Vitam, after hitting cinemas on November 6.
Underwhelming releases include Warner Bros’ Les Miserables adaptation Jean Valjean, with just 212,000 admissions to date, Paramount’s Running Man with 390,000 and Universal’s Wicked: For Good with 365,000 admissions.
Arthouse films continue to fare far better than should-be blockbusters, particularly films that premiered in Cannes in May.
Ugo Bienvenu’s animation Arco has sold some 230,000 tickets for Diaphana Distribution in November, Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, released by Ad Vitam, added 227,000 admissions to its total 395,00 tally in November and Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just An Accident is still in cinemas and going strong after its October 1 release, adding 96,000 more tickets sold to its total of 664,000.
Fifty-six films were released for the first time in cinemas in France during the four weeks of November 2025, a notable drop from 69 titles released in November of last year.
Why ticket sales are struggling
Last year, Studiocanal’s epic romance Beating Hearts kept the French box office pumping through the month of November adding 2.2 million admissions to its nearly 4.5 million total while Universal’s Gladiator II fought its way to 2 million tickets in just two weeks and Disney’s Moana 2, released just at the end of last November, also added a wave of enthusiasm when its 2.2 million admissions made it the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film in France.
This year’s top titles, however, failed to muster the same momentum as the local box office continues what has been a year of struggling to stay afloat. Just one film – Disney’s Zootopia 2 – sold more than 1 million tickets in November, compared to last November when six films crossed the 1 million admissions threshold.
December, typically the best or second-best month of the year for cinema-going in France, could bring a boost with Disney’s Avatar: Fire And Ash released on December 17.
Also looking to woo audiences are Paramount’s The SpongBob Movie: Search For SquarePants, Metropolitan’s The Housemaid and Ad Vitam’s The Secret Agent, the Cannes prize winner directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Local titles that could make a dent include UGC’s Open Season 2, Gaumont’s L’Ame Ideale and arthouse hopefuls Jerome Bonnell’s The Condition, to be released by Diaphana, Louise Hemon’s The Girl In The Snow for Condor, and Anna Cazenave Cambet’s Love Me Tender, being released by Tandem.
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