While this year was a slightly gloomy one for cinemas in France, with attendance significantly down compared to 2024, the huge success of two Disney blockbusters at the end of 2025 has given hope to the sector for the year ahead.
Nearly 157 million tickets were sold in French cinemas this year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the National Centre for Cinema and Moving Images (CNC) – well below the 181 million tickets sold last year.
"It's a mixed year for cinema, with a declining market, due to the lack of enough crowd-pleasers and surprise hits like those in 2024," Gaëtan Bruel, president of the CNC, said.
The organisation attributes this in part to a lack of French blockbusters, unlike in 2024 which boasted two films with 10 million tickets sold: Le Compte de Monte Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo) and Un p'tit truc en plus (Something Extra).
It also pointed to American films that underperformed, such as Tom Cruise's long awaited finale of the Mission: Impossible franchise, which saw only 2.5 million tickets sold in France.
Art-house surprises
For Marc-Olivier Sebbag of the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), audiences are more selective and rally on a "film by film" basis.
He highlighted the success of several art-house films released in the latter part of the year such as L'étranger (The Outsider) by François Ozon, or La Femme la plus riche du Monde (The Richest Woman in the World) starring Isabelle Huppert. Directed by Thierry Klifa, the latter was released out of competition during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and attracted more than a million viewers to theatres.
According to the CNC, attendance figures for 2025 are comparable to those of the early 2000s – lower than the 200+ million annual viewers of the 2010s, but well ahead of the slump of the 1980s and its 120 million cinema-goers per year.
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On top of surviving the Covid-19 pandemic, cinema's business model has also been revolutionised by the rise of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video , which have invested millions in projects comparable to blockbuster films and attracted a slew of younger viewers.
"The consumer segment that has disappeared is seniors," the CNC told French news agency AFP. "They are the ones most receptive to the variety of films on offer. For younger people, they tend to wait for 'a special event' to go to the cinema."
This was confirmed by the phenomenal year-end successes of Disney films Zootopia 2 and Avatar 3.
With 6.2 million tickets sold as of 29 December, the second instalment of the Zootopia adventures of rabbit Judy Hopps and fox Nick Wilde became the biggest hit of the year in France in just four weeks.
As for James Cameron's epic 3D Avatar 3, it has already attracted more than 4.6 million viewers – a level similar to the two previous Avatar films, both historic successes at the global box office.
Optimism for 2026
Sebbag says he is "very optimistic" about 2026, given the momentum at the end of the year.
During the week of 17 to 24 December, "we were at +30 percent attendance compared to 2024 and +20 percent compared to the pre-Covid era," he said.
He is also pleased to say that selection of upcoming films is wider, with major French films expected for the February school holidays, including Marsupilami, based on a popular comic book creature, as well as the animated film Les Légendaires (The Legendaries) based on a comic book series with more than 10 million copies sold.
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On the international scene, there are high hopes for the adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, starring Margot Robbie.
Film buffs are also anticipating another clash of the titans in December 2026, with the release of the behemoths Dune: Part 3 and Avengers: Doomsday expected on the same day and already dubbed "Dunesday".
In terms of the difficulties of keeping cinemas up and running, the CNC granted cash advances in September to 70 establishments out of approximately 2,200. But it said there were no more cinema closures in 2025 than in 2024.
(with newswires)
