This Sunday afternoon, spectators are present and lining up to see the films on display. Like every day, the public comes to see films that are not offered elsewhere. This is the DNA of this cinema like no other since its creation. After spending 40 years on rue d’Antrain, he moved in May 2021 to his new premises on rue de Châtillon near the station. At the end of the second confinement linked to Covid the question was then whether the public would also come back. After a moment of adaptation, the spectators were there and in greater numbers. With five rooms instead of two previously, the Arvor was able to evolve its programming “it was an opportunity to make expanded arthouses. We could both move on from established authors and at the same time, continue the work of clearing the way which is our core business by seeking out the next great authors who will make the cinema of tomorrow,” explains Antonin Moreau, director of Arvor since last July.
Entry targets exceeded from the second year
New premises and more consistent programming which allowed the cinema to retain its regulars and to open up more widely to other spectators with a more balanced audience. “We can talk about success, because we managed to bring back the audience that we had on rue d’Antrain, but also by seeking out a new one, particularly a younger audience that we didn’t have before. An audience also with greater social diversity,” underlines the manager. While remaining arthouse with a focus on arthouse films, the program also includes more recognized films Dune 2, Oppenheimer, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Anatomy of a Fall. A choice which is felt with attendance records: 262,000 entries in 2022, 263,000 in 2023 with weeks displaying 5,400 entries compared to 2,000 in 2022. “We exceeded in the second year the objective of our development plan where we had planned 250,000 entries after three years of opening. This is a figure that allowed our association to achieve financial balance.” In 2024, Arvor enters the ranking of the professional magazine Le Film Français of the Top 25 cinemas in France having recorded the most attendance in one week with 9,211 admissions, making it one of the best arthouse cinemas in France. Certain films particularly meet their audience there: “Sirat was a big arthouse success in 2025 with 1 million admissions in France and we were one of the cinemas where it recorded the most admissions.”
(Le Télégramme/Erwan Miloux)
“Always something different to see”
A success linked in particular for the director of the premises to the combination of a “classic programming released on Wednesdays two to three times a day and event films, proposals for unique screenings with previews of the debates, meetings with the authors around the film”. The little extra thing that makes the difference. And it works. “There is a feeling among people that Arvor is a permanent festival. There is always something different to see.” But the journey also has downs like in 2025, a dark year for cinema in general. “The art house fared better, and in this difficult context, we nevertheless recorded 247,000 admissions, which is approximately a drop of 7% compared to the previous year.” If entries are down 13% over the first three months of 2026, the situation does not worry the manager too much. Present at the Cannes festival, he remains confident: “We are here to do our market, to find the films that will work.” The new features of the festival should therefore boost entries and make up for the gap recorded at the start of the year. “Films like Electric Venus which perform well will allow us to get back on track quickly.” The rest of the journey promises to be rather calm with a calendar full of promising films which should attract the world. “We also hope that the public’s curiosity will be greater for films which are little or not at all identified with emerging authors. The art house is there to defend a cinema and cinematographies which are little or not visible and to defend authors who construct a work with know-how and a true filmmaker’s vision of the world.
In 2025, Arvor had offered a total of 620 films in all of its 5 theaters. A very broad diversity which also aims to be its signature, that of a place of discovery, of a different and plural cinema.
