What are the most watched heritage films in France?

The big mop ? Let’s sing in the rain ? The dollar trilogy? Unless they are cartoons for the whole family? (Source: CNC)

Heritage films (i.e. works released for the first time in cinemas more than 20 years ago) represent a real part of cinematographic exhibition in France. Distribution companies and video publishers specialize in distributing these films through re-releases, box sets or special events in order to bring them to life with the public. The National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC) has carried out a study on the current consumption of heritage cinema by French spectators. A group of 1598 participants aged 18 and over were interviewed as part of this survey.

Precisely, 88% of participants say they will watch heritage films in 2023 and 49% have no preference between heritage films and recent films, which is a very encouraging figure regarding the public’s desire to discover more recent works. ancient. Besides, the first three answers to the question “Why do you watch a heritage film?” are : “To see him again” (64%), “Because it’s a cult film” (55%) and “Because I’ve never seen it” (38%).

The study becomes more complex due to the hierarchy of viewing media. In fact, the majority of spectators prefer a free rebroadcast on television (71%), rather than a theatrical release (18%). As far as theatrical releases are concerned, it is My Neighbor Totoro of Hayao Miyazaki which comes first with 115,353 entries in 2022. It is followed by Let’s sing in the rain the musical with Gene Kelly (68,387 spectators) and Katia and the crocodile, a children’s comedy dating from 1966 (46,381 spectators). In cinema, the tone seems to be towards international projects and particularly Japanese animation, Miyazaki still being active since he released his last film The Boy and the Heron, on November 1, 2023.

On the other hand, even if international heritage films are popular in cinema, it is French heritage cinema which dominates the television field. The health crisis and confinement allowed an increase in rebroadcasts since there were 675 heritage films on French television in 2021 compared to 617 in 2022. That same year, 52.2% of heritage films broadcast were more than 40 years old. years, and we observe an increase in audiences for heritage cinema (+12% compared to 2021) while there is a drop in viewing of new films (-13% compared to 2021).

Within the ranking of old French films preferred by the French, we find classics such as Tanned people go skiing in first place (4.84 million viewers), The idiots’ dinner in second position (viewed on 4.83 million screens) followed by the trilogy of The 7th Company, which occupies third, fourth and fifth places in chronological order (with a cumulative audience of 13.33 million viewers). The second half of the top 10 sees a succession of The big mop, The Gunslingers, The goat And Wing or thigh. It is only in the last place in the ranking that we find and for a few more dollars by Sergio Leone, the only foreign film.

Grandpa Makes Resistance is not a comedy: “It’s a realistic and comic adventure film”