Thanks to French films, cinemas in La Manche are delighted with their attendance in 2024

Cinema is back in the forefront, after suffering during the health crisis. The dark rooms had already found the light in 2023, the 2024 results confirm this positive dynamicin France and at the local level.

181.3 million entries were counted in cinemas in 2024, compared to 180.7 million in 2023. “France knows the better post-Covid recovery of all comparable countries, including the United States, with a decline in attendance compared to before the crisis which is further reduced to 12.8% in 2024, and even to only 2.7% over the last eight months of the year”, analyzes the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC).

Thank you Artus for this unexpected success!

At the local level, the locomotive named CGRin Cherbourg, rejoices in a increase of 7% of his attendance (read our interview below). At the Trianon de Valognes, “we have not recorded so many admissions (30,000) for a very long time,” assures Bruno Champalaune, the independent cinema operator. It is family comedies that keep us alive and as at the national level, the most viewed film is A little something extra. »

Cinemas can indeed say thank you to Artus for this unexpected success. It is also at the top of the ranking at the Richelieu de Réville: “With 24,250 entries overall for 2024, we have largely beat our recordwhich had been established in 2023 (22,000), welcomes the director of the cinema, Bruno Lebresne. Before the public service delegation awarded in 2019 to Cinéode, the average was around 17,000 spectators per year. The community of municipalities is satisfied so the DSP has just been renewed for five years. »

Same happiness on Carentan's side: “We had more people in 2024, with 36,000 admissions, compared to just under 35,000 in 2023”, reveals Céline Durier, the manager of the Le Cotentin cinema.

It's even our record since we arrived in 2020, since we took over a cinema under construction and there was the closure period due to Covid. In the future, our goal is to reach the milestone of 40,000 entries.

And when attendance is stable, or even slightly decreasing, on other sites, those in charge are still satisfied. Like Jean-François Caillot, vice-president of the Palace association, in Équeurdreville: “We had an exceptional year in 2023 with 32,000 entries, in 2024 we therefore experienced a small drop with 28,234 entries, which remains a good attendance, above pre-Covid scores. There weren't necessarily any big locomotives last year. »

+ 2% in Saint-Lô

On the side of the Odeon in Cherbourg“attendance remains balanced. It's a little less than 2023 because there were very big films that year (Barbie, Oppenheimer…), but 2024 is a rather classic year, notes manager Sylvie Brisset. As we are in the Art house perspective, we make less use of films that are successful elsewhere: The Counts of Monte Cristo is 6th, A little something extra is in the Top 15. Our goal is to vary the proposals, we are complementary with the CGR. Thus, we proposed Dune 2 in the original version – it worked well, people are applicants for films in VO – and them in French version”.

Further south, we note a “roughly similar” number of entries at the Long-Court in Coutances, and +2% at the CinéMoViKing in Saint-Lô, or 283,000 entries last year.

Cocorico!

French films are climbing to the top of the bill, even if they are closely followed by sequels to successful animated films (Vice-versa ; Vaiana ; Despicable Me ; Kung-fu panda).

It is French cinema which is driving this unique performance in the world, with a market share of our films which in 2024 will reach one of the highest levels ever recorded with 44.4%, compared to 36.7% for American films, and 18.9% for other countries.

Before the health crisis, the average market share of our films was only 37.2%.

The hexagonal 7th Art demonstrated “ its vitality and eclecticism by accumulating more than 80 million entries” thanks to successes as different and – for some – unexpected, as Un little extra thing (10,8 millions), The Counts of Monte Cristo (9,3 millions), Love phew (4,9 millions), Mr Aznavour (2 millions), Cocorico (nearly 2 million), A fanfare (1,85 million)…

On the 34 films that have exceeded one million admissions between January 1 and December 31, 11 were French films. With 25 million cumulative entries, the French Top 3 reaches a figure not seen since 2011, it's even double that of 2023!

Interview with Sandrine Mesnil, operations director of the CGR of Cherbourg

What is your attendance record in 2024?

We have almost reached the milestone of 300,000 entries over the calendar year, 298 000 to be precise. We are at + 7% compared to 2023, so it's really a very good year, which brings us back to pre-Covid levels. And yet, it was far from won with a complicated start to the first quarter, due to delayed film releases (Editor's note: due to the strike movement of screenwriters and actors in the United States, end of 2023). We therefore experienced a good recovery in the following months, notably with gloomy weather in summer which also helped us a lot (laughs).

What are the films that have made it possible to display such results?

Our cinema is family and popular, We are therefore a hit with French films and animated films, for the youngest. Thus, we find comedy in mind A little something extrawith 33,000 admissions here, which is enormous, especially for a French film. We also notice that duration is no longer scary, if the production is good and word of mouth works well, like the Comte de Monte Cristo (2nd with 21,000 entries) or even phew love (6e) et Dune 2 (8th) which is almost three hours! The Top 10 also includes blockbusters like Deadpool & Wolverine, Gladiator 2 et Planet of the Apes: The New Kingdom.

Do you think that attendance will continue to increase, how do you see 2025?

We are already going to try to do as well as 2024! But yes, given the releases planned for this year, it looks good. To begin, we bring in Les Bodin's, who will present their fourth film in preview on Sunday February 9: The Bodin's are going into a tailspin. As for Retirement home 2 with Kev Adams at the start of 2024, we are still filling up the two large rooms: the 900 places were sold very quickly. We are happy to be able to please people by allowing them to meet headliners.

To return to theexpected successes of 2025we can cite Captain America, Les Tuche 4, Snow White, Paddington, Minecraft, Dog man, Mickey 17, Gerald the Conqueror – it’s a parody of William the Conqueror and we hope to bring Fabrice Eboué for a preview – Lilo & Stitch, Mission impossible 5, Dragons… All this just for the first semester! In the 2nd we will have for example The Smurfs, Zootopia 2, Kaamelott 2, Wicked 2, Five nights at Freddy's 2, Sponge Bob et Avatar 3 !

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