More than 25 years after its first edition, the excitement regarding the Fête du cinéma is as great as ever. Every year, on this occasion, French cinemas sell several millions tickets. The concept is an attractive one: when you buy one ticket at the regular price, the other tickets are sold at a sharply reduced price. A godsend for film lovers! 

When the event was launched in 1985, French cinema was in a period of crisis, due in particular to the explosion of films on television. However, as of its first edition initiated by the Ministry of Culture and the National Federation of French Cinemas , la Fête du Cinéma was a smash success: 1.4 million tickets were sold in one day. At the time, the event ran for 24 hours and the price of the additional tickets was 1 franc, or 15 euro cents.

The Fête du cinéma changes

Since the first edition of the Fête du cinéma, the concept has remained the same but the formula has changed several times: changes of prices, duration or spreading over two “cinema weeks” (from Wednesday to Tuesday). Other, similar events have appeared, such as the Printemps du cinéma in 2000 and the Rentrée du cinéma, with its first edition held in September 2011.

The web site of the Fête du cinéma