Five euros per screening for three days throughout France: the Printemps du cinéma launches its 2024 edition on Sunday, at a time when cinema attendance is picking up. Inaugurated in 2000, this operation is being rolled out until Tuesday in some 6,000 cinemas in France and at all screenings, specifies the National Federation of French Cinemas, which organizes the event.
Last year, the inflationary wave resulted in an increase of one euro in the price, without apparently affecting attendance: the 2023 edition attracted 2.35 million spectators compared to 2.15 the previous year, according to the Federation. “This represents at least a doubling of the usual attendance,” Marc Olivier Sebbag, its general delegate, told AFP. At 5 euros, the organizers argue, the price of the screening is well below the average price of 7.20 euros that spectators had to pay in 2022. This figure from the National Cinema Center (CNC) also hides significant disparities since nearly 18% of the places sold that year were worth ten euros or more.
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The 2024 edition of Printemps, promoted by Audrey Lamy (Heureux Gagnants…) and Damien Bonnard (Un Silence…) in a trailer with a nod to heist films, arrives at a rather promising moment for the sector. Attendance is currently driven by the second part of Dune, which has brought together nearly three million spectators since its release, after the successes of Bob Marley – One Love, Une Vie, Cocorico and Maison de retirement 2.
“We see that there is a desire for cinema which focuses on very varied films, arthouse cinema as well as general public cinema, and which concerns both young people and older people”, welcomes Marc Olivier Sebbag, according to whom Spring arrives at “the right time”.
Between January and February, more than 28 million people opened the doors of cinemas in France, down almost 13% compared to the first two months of 2023 marked, recalls the CNC, by the big successes of Asterix and Obélix – The Middle Kingdom and Alibi.com 2.
The year 2023 confirmed the return of spectators with 180.76 million admissions, up 18.9% compared to 2022, without however returning to pre-Covid levels.
