After a milestone year in 2024 that saw France solidify its status as Europe’s healthiest theatrical market, the country’s box office dipped 10% during the first half of 2025 in the absence of a massive success.
At the midpoint of this year, no movie has passed 5 million theatrical admissions in France, with overall admissions falling to 76 million tickets (an estimated gross of €542 million). Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” has performed the best with 4.7 million tickets sold, followed by “God Save the Tuche” — the third opus of Pathé’s mainstream comedy — with 3 million tickets and Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” with 2.6 million tickets, according to Comscore France.
It’s a stark contrast to 2024, when a duo of local language hits — “A Little Something Extra,” a comedy with a cast of disabled non-professionals, and Alexandre Dumas adaptation “The Count of Monte Cristo” — beat Disney’s “Inside Out” with 10 million and 9 million admissions, respectively.
Besides “God Save the Tuche,” only one other French-language film — Gaumont’s heartwarming drama “My Mother, God and Sylvie Vartan” (with 1.5 million tickets) — shows up in the top 10 for the first semester of 2024. Directed by Ken Scott, “My Mother, God and Sylvie Vartan” tells the poignant true story of a prominent French lawyer, Roland Perez (Jonathan Cohen) who was born with a clubfoot and overcame his handicap thanks to his mother’s (Leila Bekhti) unshakable determination to give her son an exceptional life.
“We’ve had some wonderful films, but for the French theatrical market to reach the level that it did in 2024, there needs to be a combination of U.S. and French blockbusters that drives up the whole market, and we haven’t had that yet,” says Comscore France’s Eric Marti.
Marti points to June releases that have performed well, including “F1,” Apple’s big-budget racing drama starring Brad Pitt (produced by Mediawan’s Plan B), and Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World Rebirth” (which have sold 2 million and 1.5 million tickets, respectively). But “it’s not enough to provoke a catalysis and awaken the market,” he says. That could change with “Smurfs,” Paramount’s animated musical starring Rihanna, which came out this week in France and has had a bullish start. Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Superman,” on the hand, has only lured 500,000 admissions in France since its July 9 opening.
Interestingly, although France boasts one of the world’s biggest nations of moviegoers, it hasn’t fared as well as other key markets, including the U.K. The British box office is so far up 20% from 2024, bolstered by Studiocanal’s “Paddington in Peru” and Universal Pictures and Working Title’s “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.” The U.S. and Australia are both up 13%, and Spain is up 7%, Marti notes.
Since the films offered from U.S. studios have been the same across most territories, the underwhelming results in France point to the specificity of local audiences, who may be harder to please with some franchises while auteur-driven films tend to overperform. Yet, instead of profiting French movies, the lack of true U.S. blockbusters has hurt even local pics. “There are some well-reviewed French films playing now in theaters like Pathé’s ’13 Days, 13 Nights’ (from ‘Monte Cristo’ producer Chapter 2), but they’re not benefitting from an upward trend as it was the case with French films last year,” Marti says.
Though not a smash success in cinemas, “13 Days, 13 Nights” has received strong reviews and word-of-mouth. The film, directed by Martin Bourboulon, is an ambitious thriller based on the true story of commander Mohamed Bida and is set in the backdrop of Kabul’s takeover by the Taliban.
Anticipated releases during the second half of the year that could ignite the French box office include Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (July 23) and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (Dec. 17), as well as a raft of big-budget, ambitious French films such as Studiocanal’s sci-fi thriller “Chien 51” directed by Cedric Jimenez (Oct. 15); Warner Bros. France’s “Les Misérables” prequel film “Valjean” (Nov. 19), Luc Besson’s “Dracula: A Love Tale” (July 30) and SND’s “Kaamelott – Deuxième volet” (Oct. 22). The fall will also bring a flurry of movies that have world premiered at Cannes and the upcoming Venice and Toronto festivals, notably Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a charming black-and-white homage to Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave, which is set for an Oct. 8 release.
