In 2024, they, like all French people, praised the French achievements which boosted the seventh art market. So much so that 181 million tickets were sold in France in 2024, an increase compared to last year. And in Pau and the surrounding area, it is also “a good year”, does not hide Thomas Diard, the director of the CGR of Lescar.
Tricolor films in the spotlight
“We have had 240,000 entries, we are making strong progress,” adds this manager who is “very happy” with the last few months. And yet, 2024 got off to a bad start. “On May 1, we were in the red. With the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike in 2023, we were running out of films. And then Artus arrived with his “Little thing extra” and from there, it took off again,” recalls Thomas Diard. He pays tribute to French productions like “The Count of Monte Cristo” or “L’Amour ouf” which “were gambles that paid off. We appreciate these qualitative and ambitious French films.”
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With 330,000 admissions in 2024, the CGR University is the busiest cinema in the city. “We are following national developments, we are very slightly above last year,” reveals Guillaume Legras, the site director. Between the animated film “Moana 2” which was “a hit” and “the good scores of the French films “A Little Something in Plus” and “The Count of Monte Cristo””, cinema is doing “rather well” .
“Covid was a trauma, an important break for many companies,” recalls Guillaume Legras. “There were a lot of people at the cinema and it was the diversity and the offering that made them come,” he underlines, proud of French achievements. “In the summer of 2023, films like “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer” filled the theaters, this year it’s “A Little Something Extra” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”. It’s very good. Not all countries can say the same. »
10,000 more entries to the Méliès
“Despite the absence on our screens of the films which have made cinema attendance a success in France”, Le Méliès recorded 127,238 paid admissions, plus 5,164 exemptions, or 132,402 admissions in total. “An increase of 1.80% on paid admissions compared to 2023, while national attendance shows an increase of 0.55%,” indicates Philippe Coquillaud-Coudreau, the director. Which specifies “compared to 2019, the pre-Covid reference year, we have 10,000 more paid entries, which is very satisfactory”.
Why the country of Nay is investing in the… cultural department
A new tool, bringing together cinema and media library, is inaugurated this Thursday in the plain. Locally, the relevance of this significant investment escapes no one, as evidenced by the numerous reactions collected.
According to him, spectators would also be “increasingly numerous to frequent the Café Méliès”, opening at the same time as the new Foirail rooms in the fall of 2022.
In art house cinema, the main films which have enabled this attendance are “Émilia Perez” (with 2,911 admissions), the work of Jacques Audiard which has just won several prizes at the Golden Globes, “There is still tomorrow” ( 2,639 entries), “En fanfare” (2,500 entries “will exceed 3,000 entries in 2025”, assures the director), “The seeds of the wild fig tree” (2,109 entries) and “The area of interest” (2,049 entries).
A diversified offer
The other cinema in the city center, the CGR Saint-Louis, rue Joffre, has also experienced an increase in attendance: “We are at more than 6% compared to 2023. A year which had already allowed us to increase our number of spectators. In fact, we are even surpassing 2019, the super year for cinema before Covid,” explains director Rémy Delassus. Which announces 68,800 entries for 2024.
“It’s a good year,” he sums up. The cinema on rue Joffre has gained spectators among new arrivals, “we have seen a lot of people settling in Pau this year,” notes the manager. Which also relies on foreign audiences by offering numerous films in the original version (VO). “We have families, Spaniards who visit the city and come to the movies in the evening and students. On Thursday evenings, there are half films in original language,” says Rémy Delassus.
It can also count on its Rising Canvases program, which combines the screening of a film with a lecture by an academic on the theme of the work. “We started the second season and the older people were happy to be with families and students,” he notes.
“Great surprises this year”
In 2025, sequels like the third part of “Avatar” at the end of the year or even “Zootopia 2” and live action films like “Snow White” and “Dragons” are very promising.
“These are successes that we are waiting for. But no one had bet on “A little extra thing” so, for me, there will still be some nice surprises,” said Guillaume Legras at CGR University.
At Saint-Louis, Rémy Delassus can’t wait to discover the latest film by director Bong Joon Ho – Oscar for Best Director for “Parasite” in 2020 – “Mickey 17”. “Its release is scheduled for March 5. It has already been postponed because the director likes everything to be perfect. It would be a nice surprise this year.”
“I am very optimistic for 2025,” Thomas Diard also confides to Lescar. For him, “Lilo and Stitch” at Disney in its live action version “will be in our top 3 next year, that’s for sure”.
