The French box office rose 10.1% in September compared to the same month in 2023, with 9.86 million tickets sold (€71m based on an average ticket price of €7.20) according to estimates from the CNC.
The rise was driven by Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, a slew of Cannes releases and a robust performance from Francis Ford Coppla’s Megalopolis.
However, the month was 11.3% down on the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average – and September 2023 had been particularly weak, posting just 8.8 million admissions (€63.2m).
Nevertheless, the overall picture remained upbeat. Admissions for the first nine months of the year reached 127.68 million (€920m), down 4.6% year-on-year after a slow start. This was down to the summer bounceback, driven by local titles including Pan Distribution’s A Little Something Extra and Pathe’s The Count Of Monte-Cristo.
September smiles
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, released by Warner Bros on September 11, topped the month with 1.24 million admissions followed by Pathé’s The Count Of Monte-Cristo, still going strong since its June 28 release with nearly 1 million more tickets added to its 8.6 million total.
Other Cannes-premiering films topping the charts included Daniel Auteil’s An Ordinary Case (Le Fil) which sold close to 500,000 tickets for distributor Zinc and Jacques Audiard’s French Oscar pick Emilia Perez which sold 470,000 more tickets in September for Pathé, bringing its total to 918,000. Sony’s It Ends With Us, released in August, followed with 420,000 more admissions for a total of 1.2 million.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis opened strongly in France with 137,000 admissions in its first week, marking the best weekly start for a Le Pacte release this year.
Also shaking up September admissions – and the entire French distribution industry – was YouTuber Inoxtag’s overnight box-office sensation Kaizen: 1 Year To Climb Everest! which sold 368,000 tickets in 24 hours for mk2’s label mk2.Alt. The unconventional release made it to the month’s top 10.
A Little Something Extra was also among the month’s top 10 and has sold a cumulative 10.7 million tickets to date, still the highest-grossing film of the year.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes Jury prize-winning Oscar contender The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, released on September 18, has sold 232,400 tickets to date for distributor Pyramide after two weeks in cinemas. Further promising late September starts include Studiocanal’s thriller No Chains, No Masters and SND’s comedy L’Heureuse Elue.
Forty-four films were released for the first time in France during the month compared to 50 in September 2023.
October traditionally sees a jump in ticket sales in France. Upcoming releases include Warner Bros’ Joker: Folie à Deux, Universal’s animation The Wild Robot and local titles such as Studiocanal’s Beating Hearts and Pathe’s biopic Monsieur Aznavour.
Arthouse films hitting cinemas include Payal Kapadia’s Cannes award-winning All We Imagine As Light, distributed by Condor, François Ozon’s San Sebastian prize-winning When Fall Is Coming, via Daphana, and Claude Barras’ Locarno award-winning Savages, which is being released by Haut et Court.
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