Arthouse and mainstream movies in French cinemas 2021

Between 2010 and 2021, the number of arthouse movie screened in theaters in France decreased from 4,002 to over 3,550 movies. However, other movie categories have also become more present - at an even faster growth - in French movie theaters during that time: from less than 2,000 up to over 2,600 movies in 2019. 

Arthouse movie theaters in France

  In France, movie theaters can be labeled “Art et Essai”, which includes them in the category of arthouse cinemas. These movie theaters are destined to promote independent movie productions and can be subsidized. Since 2014, arthouse movie theaters welcomed over 60 million spectators yearly, and even more than 70 million in 2019, which represents about a third of the total cinema entries for that same year. The audience of arthouse cinemas appears to be mainly composed of spectators aged 50 years or older, although almost a fifth of movie goers at arthouse theaters were aged between 15 and 24.  

Cinema outings in France

  Even if going to the movies appears to be a rather popular cultural outing in France, it still represents a budget for the spectators. In 2019, the overall average ticket price in French cinemas amounted to about 6.63 euros, an increase of more than 20 cents since 2014. In comparison, the average revenue per entry in arthouse cinemas was of 5.7 euros the same year.

Number of arthouse and mainstream movies running in cinemas in France from 2010 to 2021

Characteristic	Arthouse films	Other categories
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-

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Release date

June 2022

More information

Region

France

Survey time period

2010 to 2021

Supplementary notes

"Film d'art et d'essai" is the original term used by the source. In order to be categorized as "art et essai', a movie has to fulfil the following requirements:
- Although the movie did not get the audience it deserves, it possesses undeniable qualities.
-"Research and Discovery" work, i.e. films which possess novelty and research characters in the cinematic field.
- Films which reflect the life in a country of which movies are not much screened in France.
- Rework which presents an artistic or historical interest and can be thus considered as a classic movie.
- Short film which tend to renew the cinematographic art.
- Recent films which generated enthusiasm among the critics and the public, and which are considered as beneficial to the cinematographic art.
- Exceptionnal amateur cinematographic works.

In this statistic, "mainstream films" are films which are not labeled as "art et essai".

Scope: feature films, short movies or projected artistic performances running in French theaters between 2010 and 2013.
This statistic does not include movies projected in film clubs, film libraries or during movie festivals.

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