According to estimations from the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), French theaters have registered 122 million spectators since the beginning of the year. This represents an increase of 9.9% compared to the same period last year.
The CNC indicates that attendances for the month of August reached 13.8 million, a rise of 15.6% in comparison with August 2000. Although this summer season increase is essentially due to American films, French productions have retained a 42.5% slice of the market for the first 8 months of the year, against 31.2% at the same time last year. The fine early results achieved by "One Swallow Brought Spring" by Christian Carion and "The Piano Teacher" by Michael Haneke (seen by 360,000 and 205,000 spectators respectively in their first 5 days in theaters ) will no doubt assure a stable place on the national market. Meanwhile, Gabriel Aghion’s "Absolutely Fabulous" is closing in on 1,000,000 ticket sales.
