French cinema saw its fortunes rise at the international box office in 2023 after three difficult Covid-19 and post pandemic years, according to the annual report of export agency Unifrance released on Tuesday. Within this, entries for majority French productions rose 74.7% to 29.7M.
France had almost 6.3 thousand screens in 2022, the highest number among all the countries in Europe. Even though France has an important cinema industry and produces a large amount of films every year, it seems that the public prefer American movies.
At the core of French cinema's uniqueness is the celebration of the director as an auteur, a true artist whose creative vision shapes every frame of a film. The Auteur theory, born in the 1950s, is epitomized by directors like François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, stalwarts of the French New Wave.
Of course, the fact that French films are not as widely seen may be because they only export a fraction of their annual production compared to the biggest film giants. Another reason could be the language, French is not spoken by as many people as English, for example.
France is famous for being one of the cradles of cinema as we know it. The prestige associated with renowned award ceremonies such as the Cannes Film Festival, which is the hub of French Film Business as well as with famous film directors and film actors, it is spreading worldwide.
What do French people like from USA? French people generally like American culture, such as pop music, television shows, and movies. They also enjoy well-known brands from the USA, including apparel and technology companies.
In 2022, French movies (produced mainly by French producers, in French or foreign languages) attracted 27 million spectators to cinemas outside of France, generating €167.8 million in revenue. As for films produced only in French, they represented 19.6 million admissions.
there is a wide choice for non-French speakers. Going to the cinema is a favourite activity of Parisians. Cinema goers are more numerous in France than in all other European countries. So for a typically-Parisian evening out, go and see a film in one of the capital's cinemas … even if you are not a French speaker.
This is mainly due to the fact that comedy, the genre which dominates the French box office (66% of admissions for French films), accounts for a much smaller proportion in foreign markets (only 35%, although it remains the dominant genre).
There is no French equivalent of Hollywood. However there is a very big area north of Paris, in the south of a city called Saint-Denis, where big TV and movie studios are located. This area is called La Plaine Saint-Denis. The Cité du Cinéma is located there.
How does French cinema differ from American cinema?
Special effects abound in American movies—and not only in Star Wars! I'd say that Americans tend to like actions films, while the French prefer less action, more drama, and more dialogue. French films are often a reflection of life, sometimes disguised in a comedy.
In recent years, there has been a surge in movie ticket pricing, which has been turning people off. Additionally, movies hit streaming services and digital weeks after films are released in theaters, barely giving these movies room to breathe.
Not surprisingly, the French frequent cinemas the most in Europe: 29.3 percent of them said they had been to see a movie on a big screen at least four times.
Did you know that Korea has the world's highest average number of cinema attendance per capita? In 2019, Koreans watched an average of 4.37 movies a year. They love watching movies! The value dropped to 1.15 movies in 2020 due to the pandemic.
What is the most famous city for cinema in France?
Paris has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most "downtown Paris" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to "art houses" cinemas in other places are shown alongside "mainstream" works.
While 73 percent of French people claim to watch television every day, French viewers usually spend 219 minutes a day in front of their TV set. While viewing time remains stable, the platform used to watch television varies as more and more viewers watch television online.
The United States, India, and Japan rank near the top of the list of the countries that produce the best movies in the world according to moviegoers the world over.
Most movies are made in the United States, particularly in Hollywood, California. However, there are also significant film industries in other countries such as India (Bollywood), China, and the United Kingdom.
Filmed entertainment revenue in selected countries worldwide 2021. In 2021, the United States was the largest filmed entertainment market worldwide, with a revenue of almost 24 billion U.S. dollars. China and Japan followed with approximately 12 billion and 3.6 billion dollars in revenue, respectively.
In the big multiplexes in Paris almost all films are screened in their original language. In some areas there might be only one cinema that shows VO once a month though. On the Côte d'Azur it's getting easier to see movies in English.
I think one of the reasons France produces so much is because French culture is still big in Europe. French is a big language here and it's culture still influences Europe. Most Europeans have been to France and are exposed to it's culture from an early age.
