Buoyed by the heatwave, De Gaulle and cartoons, the Cinema Festival is a great success

Cinema at the party. More than 3.7 million spectators visited cinemas between Sunday June 28 and Wednesday June 1^is July, on the occasion of the 41^e Cinema festival. A result up 23% compared to 2025, theater operators announced on Thursday.

The 2026 vintage is the second best result in 10 years after the record of 2024, the year of the immense success of Comte de Monte Cristospecified the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF) in a press release.

Skip the ad

“By doubling the entries from the previous week, although marked by very high attendance, the Fête du Cinéma confirmed its status as the leading national cinema event”she congratulated herself.

Also read

The Battle of Gaulle, Toy Story 5, Obsession… With many good films on display, cinemas are full

The power of word of mouth

The promotional operation allowing you to see a film for five euros took place on Sunday “an exceptional start” while the heatwave, which still affected part of the country, encouraged the French to seek the cool of dark rooms, often air-conditioned.

“The heatwave certainly had an effect, but the main factor was the richness of the film offering, particularly for children”explained the general delegate of the FNCF, Marc-Olivier Sebbag, to AFP. The spectators thus acclaimed Toy Story 5 et Minions and Monsters .

Also read

Pierre Coffin: “Minions and monsters, it’s my own Inception! »

The two parts of the biopic on De Gaulle, The Iron Age et I write your namethe biggest budget of the year for French cinema, also aroused strong interest. “This film is enjoying unusual success, since the first part progressed from one week to the next” since its release, benefiting from a “extremely effective word of mouth”noted Marc-Olivier Sebbag. And many spectators, especially young adults, saw the two horror films on display, Backrooms et Obsession .

After the decline in 2025, cinema attendance increased by around 20% in the first half of the year, which demonstrates that “when the offer is there, the French go to the cinema”rejoices Marc-Olivier Sebbag.