French box office slump continues with 29.4% drop in ticket sales in August

France’s box office took a nosedive in August with a 29.4% drop in ticket sales year-on-year to 9.97 million admissions* (€73m), according to figures from the CNC.

It extends a summer slump after a 17.3% drop in July, and a decline in admissions across the year.

Since January 1, around 100 million admissions (€730m) have been clocked in France, down 15.1% compared to the same period in 2024.

Universal’s The Bad Guys 2, released on July 30, topped the month with just under 1.1 million admissions (€8m), followed by Disney’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, released July 23, with 825,300 ticket sales (€6m) adding to its 1.5m (€11m) tally, and Warner Bros’ hit horror Weapons, which has sold 664,800 tickets (€4.8m) since its August 6 release.

US blockbusters Jurassic World Rebirth (Universal), Smurfs (Paramount), F1 (Warner Bros) and Superman (Warner Bros) dominated the charts. Only two local titles managed to sneak into the top 10: Luc Besson’s Dracula which sold 579,000 tickets (€4.2m) for SND, and local comedy No Signal! (Pathe) with 442,300 (€3.2m).

Last August, tentpole titles from including The Count Of Monte-Cristo (Pathe), Deadpool vs Wolverine (Disney) and Despicable Me 4 carried the box office.

Several Cannes titles were released in August led by Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value which has sold a solid 132,000 tickets (€964,000) for Memento Distribution. However, Ari Aster’s Eddington has underwhelmed French audiences, selling only 79,400 tickets (€579,600) for Metropolitan since its July 16 release, as has Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, which has notched up 54,000 admissions (€394200) to date for Diaphana. 

Distributors are hoping for an upswing in fortunes. However, September is historically the weakest month of the year in France and this year there are no US franchise films to potentially carry the period.

Possible breakout hits include local comedies Goodbye My Friend (Adieu Jean Pat) (SND) and The Party’s Over! that premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Piere Schoeller’s Rembrandt (Zinc) starring Romain Duris and Camille Cottin, and international titles led by Universal Pictures’ Downton Abbey : The Grand Finale and Warner Bros’ Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

*All Euro figures based on an average ticket price of €7.30.

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