Overall, attendance in France remains “12.8% below the average” before Covid. “But in the last months of 2024, we almost returned to the figures before the pandemic,” noted Olivier Henrard, interim president of the CNC, hoping that the trend will be confirmed in 2025.
The results of admissions to cinemas in 2024 (© CNC)
Tricolor success
Three French films have accumulated nearly 25 million admissions: “A little thing in addition” by Artus (top of the 2024 box office with 10.3 million admissions), “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte (second, 9.1 million) and “L’Amour ouf” by Gilles Lellouche (fifth, 4.7 million). “Such a figure had not been reached since 2011, the year of Intouchables (by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, Editor’s note) and Nothing to Declare (by Dany Boon, Editor’s note),” commented the CNC in a press release.
Beyond these three boxes, the market share of French films totals around 44.4% in 2024. This is the “best level” since 2008, the year of “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” and “Asterix at the Olympic Games” (45.8%), tied with 2014 (year of “What did we do to the Good Lord?” and its 12 million of entries). France is thus a global “double exception”, welcomed Olivier Henrard on France Inter. First, it is “the only country in which more people than last year pushed the door of a cinema”, he underlined. Then, this attendance “is driven by national cinema”, he continued, referring to the 44.4% market share of French films. “Apart from the United States (37.6%), no country in the world comes close to this figure,” he stressed. “Among our large European neighbors, we navigate between 15 and 25%.”
The top 10 films in French cinemas in 2024. (© CNC)
In 2024 in France, in addition to the three French hits, all the other films in the top 10 are American: the three cartoons “Vice-Versa 2” (8.3 million admissions), “Vaiana 2” (6.4 million) and “Despicable Me 4” (4.3 million), as well as the films “Dune: Part II” (4.1 million), “Deadpool & Wolverine” (3.7 million), “Gladiator II” (2.9 million) and “Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom” (2.5 million).
