After a bullish year bolstered by local blockbusters, the 2025 French box office dropped by 13.6% to 156.79 million admissions, according to the National Film Board (CNC) and Comscore reports. Based on the average ticket price of €7.45 ($8.75), the box office grossed an estimated $1.17 billion.

While the market share of French films rose to 37.7% — which is “unrivaled anywhere else in Europe,” per the CNC — the box office suffered from the absence of a local tentpole and was essentially dominated by Hollywood fare. Disney took the first three slots of the year with “Zootopia 2,” which topped the chart with 6.18 million admissions, followed by “Lilo & Stitch” (5.10 million) and James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire & Ash” (4.58 million). Then came Apple and Plan B’s Brad Pitt racing drama “F1: The Movie” (3.31 million) and Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” (2.97 million).

The biggest local hit of 2025, “God Save the Tuche” — the fifth installment in Pathé’s comedy franchise — sold around 3 million tickets and was the only French film which made it in the top 10 (in the sixth spot). Four local films appeared in the top 30, notably Cedric Jimenez’s ambitious sci-fi thriller “Dog 51.” That’s a stark contrast from 2024, when the top three French films in 2024 (“A Little Something Extra,” “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Beating Hearts”) had garnered 25 million admissions combined.

Internationally, France was the market that “showed the most severe year-on-year decline in 2025,” Comscore said in its report, noting that markets such as Germany, China and Australia recorded growth. The U.S. and Canada saw a slight increase in box office revenue, while the U.K. ended the year on the same level as in 2024. But the CNC flags that France still hosts Europe’s leading nation of moviegoers. Germany closed the year at roughly 85 million admissions, followed by Italy at 67 million and Spain at 65 million, per the CNC.

The breadth of local films released throughout the year contributed to the high market share. Several French titles posted solid runs; for instance Ken Scott’s “Once Upon My Mother” crossed 1.4 million admissions, Franck Dubosc’s “Un ours dans le Jura” reached around 1.4 million and Thierry Klifa’s “The Richest Woman in the World” starring Isabelle Huppert sold nearly 900,000 tickets.

As it often is in France, auteur-driven cinema remained a bright spot, delivering sleeper hits and surpassing expectations. The CNC cited the strong performance of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât,” Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco” and Hafsia Herzi’s “The Little Sister.”

“2025 was a mixed year for theatrical cinema, with a declining market due to a lack of unifying films and surprise hits like in 2024, but with a sharp rebound at the end of the year, driven by a strong offering of films, particularly American ones,” said Gaëtan Bruel, president of the CNC. “This result should not obscure the relevance of our model in the long term: a network of theaters with unparalleled density that allows a wide variety of films to reach all audiences, and a market share for domestic films that makes France an exception in Europe and around the world.”

The year ended on a rebound, powered by a cluster of U.S. pics. Besides “Zootopia 2″ and “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried’s erotic thriller “The Housemaid” (released in France by Metropolitan Filmexport) proved to be a late-year hit, released on Dec. 24 and drawing 1.1 million admissions in just a week; as well as Vincent Munier’s wildlife documentary “Le chant des forets” with 360,000 admissions.

Bruel is optimistic about the prospects for 2026. Addressing the healthy performance of director-led films, he argued that French audiences are lured by “original and daring offerings.” He added, “From this point of view, 2026 promises to be a very rich year.”

Among the most promising 2026 releases cited by the National Exhibitors Federation (FNCF) are: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day,” Andrew Stanton’s “Toy Story 5,” Antonin Baudry’s “De Gaulle” and Philippe Lacheau’s “Marsupilami.” There’s also Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part 3,” Ruben Ostlund’s “The Entertainment System is Down,” James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger” in the pipeline.

Top 10 movies at the French box office (in admissions) in 2025:

“Zootopia 2”: 6.18 million

“Lilo & Stitch”: 5.10 million

“Avatar: Fire & Ash”: 4.58 million

“F1: The Movie”: 3.31 million

“Jurassic World: Renaissance”: 2.97 million

“God Save the Tuche”: 2.95 million

“A Minecraft Movie”: 2.66 million

“Mufasa: The Lion King”: 2.64 million

“How To Train Your Dragon”: 2.55 million

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”: 2.46 million