Paris arthouse cinemas battle falling attendance with premium renovations and new screens as streaming and multiplex competition threaten survival
PARIS: Parisian arthouse cinemas are implementing innovative strategies to counter declining audience numbers in the face of streaming services and multiplex competition.
The city centre boasts the world’s highest density of silver screens per capita and a deeply cinephile population supporting approximately 80 independent venues.
Rising streaming popularity, advanced home cinema systems, and competition from well-funded multiplex chains now threaten these establishments’ survival.
Champs-Elysees cinema ticket sales plummeted from 1.9 million in 2014 to just 133,000 a decade later according to Paris city hall data.
Only a handful of cinemas remain on the famous avenue today as others have transformed into luxury boutiques and tourist shops.
Elysees-Lincoln cinema operators Louis and Samuel Merle faced the decision to either close, transform, or repurpose their venue in 2019.
“We decided it would remain a cinema because we are passionate, but we had to find a new economic model,” Louis Merle told AFP.
The brothers created a modular cinema where one screen converts into a 200-person reception room within an hour.
They invested nearly €2.3 million in high-end renovations to establish a luxury cinema with carefully designed interiors.
“It was unthinkable to see another cinema close on the Champs-Elysées,” Merle said, describing cultural preservation as an activist act.
This approach aligns with the industry trend toward premium venues offering superior comfort and audiovisual quality.
“The audience is becoming increasingly scarce. You have to win it back by offering exemplary conditions,” said Richard Patry of the National Federation of French Cinemas.
Cinema attendance has fallen approximately 15% in 2025 compared to 2024 levels according to industry data.
Experts suggest the sector may never recover pre-pandemic attendance levels due to changed consumer behaviour.
This year’s figures also suffer from insufficient French-language hits or Hollywood blockbusters to drive significant footfall.
Paris maintains exceptional cinema attendance with 8.03 entries per inhabitant annually compared to France’s 2.73 national average.
The Brady cinema in the 10th arrondissement aims to boost annual admissions from 65,000 to 100,000 by adding a 34-seat third screen.
“You have to come up with things within your means and possibilities to try to survive,” said owner Fabien Houi.
The Grand Action cinema near Notre-Dame cathedral has doubled its annual releases and exceeded attendance expectations since adding a 27-seat screen in 2022.
Owner Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy achieved these results while maintaining the venue’s arthouse programming identity. – AFP
