The double SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes are worrying exhibitors in France, where the box office is driven by Hollywood blockbusters.
In an interview with French news channel BFM Business, Richard Patry, who presides over the National Federation of Cinemas, predicts “the strike might go on for a long time” because it’s aimed at streaming services.
“Many U.S. films have already started to be delayed, and it worries us a lot for 2024,” Patry said. The dearth of U.S. releases during the pandemic hurt the French box office, which was down by about 30% in 2022. Even if French movies have a large market share domestically, U.S. blockbusters typically drive an upward trend. Case in point: the French B.O. finally recovered this year and has been up 33%, bolstered by a spike in anticipated American movies, which skyrocketed from 29 in 2022 to 51 in the first five months of 2023, according to Comscore France.
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” sold an impressive 159,674 tickets and 359,889 tickets, respectively, on their opening day on July 19. Patry said France reached the milestone of 100 million admissions in July. Other top grossers this year include “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1,” “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” among others.
Besides impacting theatrical admissions in France, successive delays in U.S. releases could also have repercussions on the the whole of the French film industry. A percentage of all ticket sales goes to the National Film Board, which then redistributes these resources in subsidy schemes aimed at French producers and distributors.
Patry, who sits on the board of the Cannes Film Festival, also told BFM Business that “it was not necessary to go on strike to fight AI.”
“It’s true that we need to be very, very careful but I don’t think you can write a great script using AI,” he said. “We’ll always need the talent of a screenwriter to create great films.”
