Culture pass: how did cinema dethrone books at the start of 2026?

In May 2021, the introduction of the Culture Pass and its 300 euro credit for young people aged 18 caused an earthquake in bookstores. Driven by a massive craze for Japanese comics, the system was quickly given the nickname “manga pass” by its detractors, denigrating a practice then excluded from the canons of classic reading. Conversely, refusing to see it as a “regression” and recalling that this form of expression is part of a millennia-old graphic tradition, Xavier Darcos, Chancellor of the Institut de France, offered major academic recognition to this part of visual culture during the cycle “Le Trait et l’Esprit”, a series of conferences on BD.Â

The cultural legitimation of manga

Booksellers will not say the opposite when thinking back to the year 2021, which will remain that of an unprecedented surge for manga in France. As soon as the Pass was launched, the allocation of credits caused immediate excitement. Sébastien Cavalier, then president of the structure, indicated that at launch, manga took up more than half of the book reservations made on the application. The financial impact is spectacular for independent bookstores. At Decitre (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), gender generates 60% of the turnover linked to the system. In specialized brands, such as Alpha BD in Nice, this proportion peaked at 95% during the first months.

On the ground, this flow of reservations resulted in a significant increase in attendance. In Périgueux, at the Metropolis bookstore in Bayeux or at the Brouillon de Culture in Caen, the observation is identical: the Pass acted as a lever of attraction. By encouraging teenagers to go to the store to pick up popular titles like One Piece, the system fulfilled an objective, namely to transform a virtual fashion phenomenon into a concrete point of contact with the network of bookstores, local or not.

The end of hegemony, not of practice

This phase of excitement has gradually given way to a normalization of purchasing behavior. Data from the Court of Auditors highlight a clear decline in the share of manga once the data is consolidated: while it represented 40% of book acquisitions at the start of the operation, its proportion fell to 20% in 2024. This decline reflects a diversification of young people’s choices. Purchasing intentions are now at 40% in other segments such as children’s novels, poetry, theater, thrillers and science fiction.

This rebalancing, however, was coupled with an economic downturn for the sector. According to the French Bookstore Union (SLF), sales of manga in stores fell by 7.7% over the whole of 2025, and the use of shelves by young audiences is stalling. This slowdown is part of a broader trend of decline in bookstore admissions.

The event of the “Pass cinema”

On the occasion of the report presented in Cannes on May 13, 2026 by its president, Laurence Tison-Vuillaume, a major fact appeared: for the very first time since 2021, books abandoned their position as leader in reservations in favor of cinema. The numerical indicators confirm the solidity of this trajectory: since the beginning of the initiative, cinemas have accumulated 36.6 million admissions via the application, including 5.3 million in 2025. The first assessment for the year 2026 extends this trend, with already 1.9 million tickets published by individual beneficiaries, testifying to a consumption habit that is now a priority.

This new hegemony is also explained by the transformation of the Culture Pass, elevated to the rank of state operator. The system team has developed targeted editorialization logics (film clubs, accompanied screenings, youth juries) and relies heavily on the arthouse network, which captures 60% of reservations for the school collective component. The signing in Cannes of a three-year agreement with the AFCAE (French Association of Art and Essay Cinemas) materializes this ambition: to build a local offering to reach audiences furthest from traditional cultural structures.

Crédits illustration Pexels CC 0

 

By Victor De Sepausy
Contact : vds@actualitte.com