Attendance at French cinemas exploded in April 2026
Nearly 20% increase compared to the same period last year, thanks to the boxes of Mario, Michael and Nakache and Toledano.
More than 16 million spectators visited cinemas during the month of April 2026, reports the CNC.
A result driven by the 89 films (excluding repeats) screened in recent weeks in French cinemas – including American boxes Michael, Super Mario Galaxy Or Last Chance Projectbut also the lovely French successes that are Compostela Or Just an illusion. Result: the market share of French films still reached 46.9%.
With 16 million entries, attendance shows a clear increase of +35% compared to April 2025 (11.8 million) and April 2024 (11.9 million). A solid score, even if it remains lower than April 2023, which peaked at more than 18.6 million entries, driven in particular by Super Mario Bros. the movie And The Three Musketeers. An exceptional score, comparable to pre-Covid (around 18.5 million admissions on average in April between 2017 and 2019).
This good month of April 2026 in any case confirms the positive trend observed since the start of the year: +14.8% in January, +25.4% in February and +1.4% in March.
In total, 62.73 million admissions have been recorded since January 1, 2026. A figure up 19.1% compared to the same period in 2025 (52.6 million) and 15% compared to 2024 (55 million). Note, however, that this total remains lower than that of 2023, which reached 67 million spectators over the first four months of the year.
