'Creed III'

Source: MGM / Warner Bros

‘Creed III’

France’s box office continued its year-on-year climb in March, but ended another month still below pre-pandemic levels with 15.77 million ticket sales, up 18.1% from 2022, but down 19.8% from the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average.

Adonis Creed emerged victorious with Creed III (Warner Bros) holding down the competition as the top title of the month following its March 1 release with 2.1 million ticket and a 16% market share. Entering the ring was Alibi.com 2 (Studiocanal), Philippe Lacheau’s ensemble comedy still going strong since its February 8 release. The film sold 1.1 million tickets in March alone and has already sold upwards of 4 million tickets to date.

Scream VI (Paramount), released in France on March 8 trailed with 986k for the month. French features François Ozon’s The Crime is Mine (Gaumont) followed with 909k in March ahead of Mélanie Auffret’s Sweet Little Things (Zinc) with 780k.

With 49 million ticket sales, the first three months of 2023 already show steady progress year on year with a 32.4% increase in ticket sales, but still down 19% from the 2017-2019 average. March 2022 marked the official lifting of France’s strict Covid restrictions. Masks were required indoors in theatres through March 14 last year.

Also boosting ticket sales was France’s ’Le Printemps du Cinema’, an annual three-day Springtime event where moviegoers can see films for just €5. The event produced 2.2 million admissions, 20.4% less than 2017-2019, but a marked 71.1% increase in moviegoers from the previous week.

72 films were released for the first time in March 2023 on par with the 73 released in March 2022, an average of 14 films per week. Over the month, 11 American films and 33 French films were released in theaters, compared to 5 and 54 films respectively in March 2022. The market share of French films is estimated at 49.2% for the first three months and that of American films at 41.1%.

Already giving Adonis Creed a run for his money as the April box office gets underway are Jean Dujardin who stars in On the Wandering Paths (Apollo Films) that topped last week’s box office and John Wick: Chapter 4 (Metropolitan FIlmexport). April should see strong ticket sales with anticipated local language titles like Pathé’s megabudget The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan released April 5 plus US franchises like Super Mario Bros. (Universal) and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount).

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