“It’s the magic of cinema”, more spectators, attracted by French films, particularly in Brittany

2024, a good year for cinema in France: a million more admissions and French films that are a hit. Brittany was particularly excited by the national production, where The Count of Monte Cristo and Un p’tit truc en plus won the prize.

181,300 cinema tickets sold in France, one million more than in 2023. This encouraging result represents “a double exception” in the world, according to the president of the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC), interviewed by our colleagues from France Inter. France is the only country in the world where cinema admissions are increasing, and this progression has been driven by national cinema.

To read. Movie theater. Arvor, in Rennes, distinguished for its attendance records

In France, French films took 44.4% of the market share: ““There is no country in the world that comes close to that figure, outside of the United States, which consumes its own cinema.” underlines Olivier Henrard, the interim president of the CNC.

On first place on the podium, we find Artus’ film, A little something extrathe biggest success of the year 2024, with 10.8 million spectators. Le Comte de Monte Cristo comes in second place with 9.3 million entries. phew loveby Gilles Lellouche, is in fifth place with 4.8 million tickets, behind two Disney productions, Vice Versa 2 et Vaiana 2. Other smaller budget French films have won over audiences, such as The Story of Souleymaneby Boris Lojkine, which exceeds 520,000 admissions and is still showing.

In Brittany as in Pays de la Loire, French production was particularly pampered. The public in the West of France is there for both small and big budget films.

“It’s linked to the fact of having a lot of local cinemas, installed in small towns”explains Yves Sutter, president of the Syndicat des Cinémas de l’Ouest, also general director of Cinéville. In Brittany, many small towns of less than 8,000 inhabitants have a cinema, whether associative or private company.

To read. “We have to make them want to come!” The fight of a small Breton cinema to bring back its audience

The Cinéville company has 21 cinemas, including 12 in Brittany, and 7 in Pays de la Loire. Among the cinema tickets it sold in 2024, 16% were for A little something extra et The Counts of Monte Cristo … two real locomotives.

“For A little thing in addition, released on May 1, no professional expected this success! It’s the magic of cinema, the public has the last word.”

Yves Sutter

President of the West Cinema Union

At the beginning of 2024“American films remained in the fridge” in the words of Olivier Henrard, the interim president of the CNC. The first four months of the year passed without a film being released across the Atlantic, due to the long strike of screenwriters and then actors in the United States, which began in the summer of 2023.

Despite this handicap, French cinemas are doing well. Relieved, managers nevertheless point out that theater attendance has not returned to its pre-Covid level. In 2024, it remains 12.8% below the average entry before Covid.