The French box office struggled to keep up the momentum of its April and May bounceback to pre-pandemic ticket sales in June, but continues to show signs of a slow, but steady comeback in the first six months of the year.
According to figures from the CNC, ticket sales dropped 10.8% in June year on year to 10m and were down 12.8% compared to the 2017-2019 average. June’s drop is especially notable since every month from January through May saw ticket sales surpass those of 2022 and April and May saw admissions return to pre-pandemic numbers (up 3% in April and 9% in May) But June was down on all accounts and marks the lowest monthly ticket sales thus far in 2023.
Since January 1, French cinemas have clocked 91.9m admissions, up a sizeable 25.7% compared to the first six months of 2022, but still 12.1% less than the 2017-2019 average.
The market share of French films is estimated at 42.4% for the first six months of the year, with US films garnering some 44.2%.
June gloom
Sony’s Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse was the top film of the month with 1.4 million admissions, followed by Disney’s The Little Mermaid with 878,996 for the month and a cumulative 1.46 million and Paramount’s Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts with 821,719.
The top French film in June was Valerie Donzelli’s Cannes Premiere relationship drama Just The Two of Us, released by Diaphana, that has sold 368, 495 tickets in June and a total of 588, 822 since its May 24 release.
Maiwenn’s Cannes opener Jeanne Du Barry, released by Vertical Entertainment, continues to remain among the top titles in France and has sold 751, 666 tickets since its release on May 16.
Only Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse crossed the symbolic 1 million admissions mark in June, compared to 2022 when Top Gun: Maverick sold 2.7 million tickets and Jurassic World 2.4 million, together accounting for more than 55% of the market share for the period. June’s ticket sales are more evenly distributed among the US blockbusters that also include Universal’s Fast & Furious X, Warner Bros’ The Flash and Disney’s Elementary.
“June was an atypical month,” suggested Marc-Olivier Sebbag, executive director of France’s National Cinema Federation, the FNCF. “The weather was beautiful which is out of the ordinary, so that played into the first two weeks of the month when ticket sales really dropped, but caught up towards the end.”
The week of June 21-27 saw a 4% rise in year on year ticket sales with 1.9m ticket sold compared to 1.8m in 2022.
Summer optimism
The pipeline of summer blockbusters is fuelling optimism for the months ahead. Warner Bros’ Barbie, Universal’s Oppenheimer, and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1 all open in July. Additionally, the four-day annual Fête du Cinema initiative organised by the FNCF from July 2-5 has already seen admissions double week -on- week in its first day on Sunday (July 2), up 7% from last year when the full event sold 3.3 million tickets.
However, ongoing civil unrest following the fatal shooting of a 17 year-old boy by a police officer last week may, however, put a damper on cinema-going in the days ahead.
Sebbag is optimistic for the summer ahead particularly following a less-than-stellar performance for the period last year. “Summer 2022 was pretty bad,” he said of the 13.7m tickets sold in July, down 3.8% even from 2021 and 17.8% less than the pre-pandemic average, and the 10.5m in August, a 7.1% drop from 2021 and 33% less than the pre-pandemic average.
“We’re very optimistic based on the films coming this summer and end of the year and we hope to get back to pre-pandemic levels,” Sebbag said and estimates “at least 180-190 million tickets sold by the end of the year.”
Independent cinema still has a place at the French box office with success stories this year including Studiocanal’s March 29 release of All Your Faces (Je Verrai Toujours Vos Visages) that has sold upwards of 1.2m tickets to date and Just the Two of Us, already off to a strong start. Pathé’s The Three Musketeers also did well as did Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, distributed by Condor Distribution, that sold 133,921 in its February release on just 95 copies.
“Young people were the first to come back to cinemas and have been very dynamic since the start of the year,” Sebbag said. “We’re seeing success for films for older audiences too. It took time for them to come back, but we’re seeing them more and more, particularly for French films.”
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