No exception even in the kingdom of the indomitable Gauls: the two summer blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer, dominate the French box office, boosting attendance figures in dark rooms.
According to estimates by the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image, cinema attendance reached nearly 18.4 million admissions for the month of July alone, an increase of 33.3% over one year. . The cause ? Two polar opposite blockbusters. On the one hand Barbie, by the American Greta Gerwig with Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
By the end of July, the doll movie’s earnings totaled $774 million worldwide. With 1.2 million admissions this week, nearly three million admissions since its release, Barbie remains unbeatable. It is followed by Oppenheimer, the film by Briton Christopher Nolan, with Cillian Murphy in the title role. They are nearly 977,000 spectators to have seen the film this week, that is to say more than two million in total. The feature film looks back on the race towards nuclear weapons that was the Manhattan project and, after the war, the second life of Robert Oppenheimer, its designer who was accused of complacency with the Soviets.
To find a French film, you have to wait for fourth place on the podium. For its first week of operation, the film Les Deguns 2, which is based on a Marseille web series which was very popular on YouTube, attracted more than 300,000 spectators. Successes which confirm the trend of the return of the public to French cinemas, hard hit by the Covid-19 epidemic. Since January 1, cinemas have recorded nearly 109 million admissions, an increase of 25.5% compared to the first seven months of 2022, specifies the CNC.
In total, Barbie achieved almost 3 million admissions in two weeks while Oppenheimer exceeded 2 million. The rest of the box office is shared by Mission Impossible: Dead Reckonning (just under 3 million admissions in three weeks), The Deguns 2 (300,000 admissions since Wednesday) and Elementary (over 2 million admissions in six weeks ).
