After struggling through 2025, the French box office has bounced back with 15.89 million admissions in January, up 14.9% compared to the same month last year, according to CNC estimates.
That amounts to €117.6 million according to an average ticket price of €7.40. That is the best result for January in the country since 2019 (18.3 million admissions).
The box-office boom was led by US titles in the top three slots, and bolstered by French titles boasting solid performances, a good sign for the local industry.
Disney’s Avatar : Fire & Ash fired up audiences, taking the top slot for the year to date with just over 3 million admissions in January, and a total tally of 8.5 million admissions since its December 17 launch.
Metropolitan Filmexport’s The Housemaid followed with 2.5 million admissions in January, for a total tally of 4 million since its Christmas Eve 2025 launch. Rounding out the top three was Disney’s Zootopia 3 that added 1.6 million admissions to its 8.3 million total over the month.
Jean-Paul Salome’s The Money Maker, released by Le Pacte, lived up to its title and was the top French film for the month, selling 645,000 tickets in just two weeks in cinemas and is now at nearly 900,000.
Vincent Munier’s nature doc Whispers In The Woods (Haut Et Court) sold nearly 580,500 tickets, a notable feat for the genre and has already surpassed one million admissions since its Dec. 17 release. Both local titles are being sold by The Bureau Film Sales.
Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard Of The Kremlin has started strong for Gaumont with 330,000 admissions in its first week in cinemas (Jan. 21) and is now at 500,000 in total.
UGC’s comedy sequel Open Season 2 continued its solid run with 320,000 more admissions added to its 1.2 million total.
Arthouse films also drew crowds, including Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, released in France by Les Films du Losange and Scala Films, Alice Vial’s You Found Me (Gaumont) and Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent (Ad Vitam).
The market share for French films was 36.8% in January, down from 44% last year, as US titles gained ground with a 38% market share, up slightly from 37% last year.
The local industry is hoping February’s box office will get a further boost from the country’s annual school holidays and a series of high-profile films on release. They include Christophe Barratier’s World War II-set Children Of The Resistance (Studiocanal), basketball comedy The American Dream (Gaumont), and US titles led by Wuthering Heights (Warner Bros.), Marty Supreme (Metropolitan Filmexport).
Arthouse films to open in France in February include The President’s Cake (Tandem) and The Mastermind (Condor Distribution).
February has started positively with Pathe’s creature feature Marsupilami, released on February 4, which has clocked the highest number of first-day admissions for a French film since 2024 box office phenomenon A Little Something Extra, which ended with 11 million admissions.
Additionally, Studiocanal’s Yann Gozland-directed psychological thriller Guru, about a manipulative self-help guru, has also sold more than 700,000 tickets in its first week in cinemas since opening on January 28.
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