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PARIS -- The Printemps du Cinema, France's annual three-day spring promotion that wrapped Tuesday, attracted 2.6 million admissions across France, its highest-ever turnout since the event was launched in 2000, organizers said Wednesday. The National Federation of French Cinemas, which offered movie tickets at a discounted rate of €3.50 ($4.23) in 5,300 cinema halls across France, said the strength of new releases had contributed to the 18.2% increase in ticket sales over last year. French comedies Du jour au lendemain (One Fine Day) and Essaye-moi (Try Me) topped the list of 10 films with the highest number of tickets sold during the week starting March 15, which included the promotion (March 19-21). Underworld: Evolution beat French hit comedy Les Bronzes 3 -- Amis Pour la Vie (Friends Forever) by four tickets to occupy the third slot. The French comedy, which has broken several French records, crossed the 10 million-admissions mark during the promotion. Other Hollywood films on the top 10 list for the week include The Pink Panther, Memoirs of a Geisha and Derailed, in the fifth, seventh and 10th place, respectively.

PARIS -- The Printemps du Cinema, France's annual spring promotion which lures audiences to the movies with cut-price tickets, kicked off Sunday with 1.1 million admissions, a 30% increase over last year's first-day figure, organizers said Monday. The National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), which has organized the three-day promotion since 2000, attributed Sunday's turnout to the diversity of new Hollywood and French releases, including The Pink Panther, Underworld: Evolution, French comedies Du jour au lendemain (One Fine Day) and Essaye-moi (Try Me) and black-and-white animation film Renaissance. The holdover strength of earlier releases such as Prime, Fauteuils d'orchestre (Orchestra Seats) and L'Ivresse du pouvoir (Comedy of Power) also contributed to film admissions on the first day. The strong showing Sunday was also helped by French hit comedy Les Bronzes 3 - amis pour la vie (Friends Forever) which crossed 10.1 million admissions this weekend, and another French comedy, Je vous trouve tres beau (You Are So Beautiful), which crossed the 3 million mark, the FNCF added.