French Cinema Posts 20% Box Office Jump in First Half of 2026 on Balanced Slate of Local and Hollywood Hits

France’s theatrical market delivered a robust first half of 2026, generating an estimated €680 million ($776 million) from nearly 92 million admissions, a 19.7% year-on-year increase fueled by a diverse mix of domestic productions, Hollywood tentpoles, and breakout genre titles.

A key feature of the recovery has been the equilibrium between local and U.S. fare. According to CNC estimates, French films accounted for 42.5% of admissions during the first six months, while U.S. films represented 47.5%.

Rather than relying on a handful of blockbusters, roughly 20 films surpassed the 1 million-admission threshold, including eight French titles, according to Comscore France managing director Eric Marti.

“That means there have been many successes, rather than just three or four isolated hits,” Marti said, adding that “there is a very healthy balance between successful French films and successful American films.”

French family adventure “Marsupilami,” released by Pathé, led the year-to-date box office at the end of June with more than 6.1 million admissions. Other French titles in the first-half top 10 were Studiocanal’s “Guru” and “Children of the Resistance,” Gaumont’s “Just an Illusion,” and Pathé’s “De Gaulle: Resistance.” They were joined by five U.S. releases: Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Michael,” and Disney’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Toy Story 5,” and “Hoppers.”

Independent distributors also notched significant results with less predictable titles. Distributed in France by Le Pacte, the horror breakout “Obsession” has reached approximately 1.4 million admissions since its May 13 debut, while “Backrooms,” released by Metropolitan FilmExport, stands at around 1.1 million since its June 17 rollout.

Marti described the trajectory of “Obsession” as particularly unusual, noting that it has “gone well beyond all the usual boundaries of the genre.”

Comparing recent trends, Marti placed the first semester of 2026 on par with the first half of 2023, which had previously marked the strongest start to a year since cinemas reopened following the pandemic.

The first half of 2026 closed on a particularly strong note, with more than 5 million tickets sold during its final week—only the second time the French market has crossed that threshold this year. The country’s annual Fête du Cinéma (during which tickets are discounted at participating cinemas) also generated approximately 3.7 million admissions.

For Marti, however, the most positive sign was the market’s ability to rebound rapidly from periods of weakness. Admissions dipped around mid-March and again in early June, when the market hit its lowest point of the year, but both downturns proved brief before business recovered.

“This capacity to rebound is extremely encouraging, because it shows that as soon as the programming is there, audiences go to cinemas,” Marti said.

The two-part historical epic “De Gaulle” has become perhaps the most striking illustration of that appetite.

The first installment, “De Gaulle: Resistance,” opened with approximately 385,000 admissions in its first week. After declining in its second week, it rose 17% in its third and then jumped 71% in its fourth week to around 465,000 admissions—21% above its opening-week total.

The second opus, “De Gaulle: I Write Your Name,” released just three weeks after the first, opened even more strongly and benefited from the momentum surrounding the initial film. Both movies have run side-by-side in the box office top five.

Pathé’s decision to release the two parts so closely together was an unprecedented gamble, but the strategy is paying off. The first film has passed 1.7 million admissions and is on track to exceed 2 million in the coming week, while the second could ultimately perform just as well, or even better, given strong word-of-mouth and summer momentum.

The French market has also outperformed most of its European neighbors. It ran slightly ahead of Italy (whose top movie has been Checco Zalone’s “Buen Camino”) and outperformed the U.K., although it remained behind Germany and Spain, where admissions have been boosted by major local hits such as Santiago Segura’s Spanish satire “Torrente for President.”

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