French Box Office Posts 13.6% Drop In Admissions For 2025 With U.S. Movies & Arthouse Titles Winners In Complex Year

French cinema admissions dropped 13.6% year-on-year successful 2025 to 156.79M admissions, against 181.52M past year, for a unsmooth gross of $1.36B (€1.16b), according to figures released by France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC).

The figures confirmed a analyzable twelvemonth astatine nan French container agency successful which only January and December saw mini year-on-year admittance gains, while nan summertime months saw drops successful admissions of 28.5% successful May and 29.6% successful August.

The apical performing films crossed 2025 were Zootopia 2 pinch 6.18 cardinal entries, followed by Lilo & Stitch (5.1m), Avatar: Fire and Ash (4.58m), F1: The Movie (3.31m) and Jurassic World Renaissance (2.97m).

The champion performing French movie was drama franchise God Save The Tuche, which came successful sixth pinch 2.95 cardinal entries and was nan only section accumulation to make it into nan apical ten.

This was successful opposition to 2024 erstwhile French films dominated nan apical five, led by The apical astonishment breakout title A Little Something Extra pinch 10M entries and The Count Of Monte Cristo (9.1M).

Looking for metallic linings, nan CNC noted that France’s container agency remained nan biggest successful Europe, listing admissions of 85 cardinal for Germany, 67 cardinal for Italy and 65 cardinal for Spain up until December 28, arsenic good arsenic nan truth that French films took a 37.7% marketplace share.

The second fig was down connected 2024 erstwhile French films accounted for 44% of admissions, but is successful statement pinch pre-pandemic levels. The U.S. stock of nan marketplace was unchangeable astatine 35.8%, against 35.6% past year.

The CNC besides pointed to nan mini 0.9% year-on-year emergence to 20.73 cardinal admissions successful December, connected nan backmost of beardown performances by Avatar: Fire and Ash, Zootopia 2, The Housemaid and French documentary Whispers successful nan Woods.

“2025 was a mixed twelvemonth for cinemas, pinch a declining marketplace owed to a deficiency of crowd-pleasing films and astonishment hits for illustration those of 2024 but saw beardown rebound astatine nan extremity of nan year, driven by a robust offering of films, peculiarly American ones,” said CNC President Gaëtan Bruel.

“This consequence should not overshadow nan semipermanent relevance of our model: an unparalleled web of cinemas that allows a wide assortment of films to scope each audiences, and a marketplace stock of French films that makes France an objection successful Europe and worldwide,” he added.

In spite of nan deficiency a large container agency hits, nan CNC noted that a number of French films had put successful respectable showings astatine nan container office. After God Save The Tuche, nan apical performing films were My Mother, God, And Sylvie Vartan pinch 1.4M admissions, How To Make A Killing (1.39M), Colours of Time (887,000), The Richest Woman In The World (883,000), The Ties That Bind Us (750,000), The Stranger (734,000) and Case 137 (645,000).

Another agleam spot was nan capacity of arthouse films, pinch nan CNC pointing to nan performances of One Battle After Another pinch 1.5M admissions, Mickey 17 (1.2M), Sirât (700,000), It Was Just An Accident (625,000), The Brutalist (487,000), Sentimental Value (400,000), The Voice of Hind Rajab (265,000), Arco (434,000) and The Little Sister (385,000).

In an article successful nan Le Figaro past week pre-empting Wednesday’s figures, nan caput of France’s independent arthouse cinema theatre relation AFCAE David Obadia said 2025 had been a bully twelvemonth for its members.

“It’s our champion twelvemonth successful a decade. More than a 3rd of nan entries this summertime were successful our cinemas,” he said, referring to AFCAE’s web of immoderate 1,250 cinemas.

Top Ten Films At French Box Office In 2024 (figs moving up to 29/12/2025)