Cinemas in France

Search French cinema establishments using the open data.culture.gouv.fr API. Query by city, region, proximity, screen count, Art et Essai label, and multiple...

France Cinemas (No API key)

Search and explore the official French government dataset of cinema establishments. The dataset contains 2,061 cinemas with screen counts, seat capacity, attendance figures, Art et Essai classification, geographic coordinates, and more.

Data source: Ministere de la Culture, updated periodically. Licence Ouverte / Open Licence.

Quick Reference

Action	Endpoint
Search by city	?where=search(commune,"Lyon")
Search by name	?where=search(nom,"Gaumont")
Nearby cinemas	?where=within_distance(geolocalisation,geom'POINT(lon lat)',10km)
Art et Essai only	?where=ae="AE"
Multiplexes only	?where=multiplexe="OUI"
By region	?where=region_administrative="ILE DE FRANCE"
Top by attendance	?order_by=entrees_2022 desc&limit=10

Base URL for all queries:

https://data.culture.gouv.fr/api/explore/v2.1/catalog/datasets/etablissements-cinematographiques/records

Fields

Field	Type	Description
nom	text	Cinema name
commune	text	City name
dep	text	Department number (e.g. "75")
region_administrative	text	Region (e.g. "ILE DE FRANCE")
adresse	text	Street address
code_insee	text	INSEE municipality code
population_commune	int	City population
ecrans	int	Number of screens
fauteuils	int	Total seats
entrees_2022	int	Admissions in 2022
ae	text	Art et Essai label ("AE" or empty)
genre	text	Venue type ("Fixe", "Itinerant", "Saisonnier")
multiplexe	text	Multiplex status ("OUI", "NON")
zone_de_la_commune	text	Urban zone ("U" urban, "R" rural)
geolocalisation	geo_point	Latitude/longitude coordinates
nombre_de_films_programmes	int	Number of films screened
nombre_de_films_inedits	int	Number of first-run films
nombre_de_films_en_semaine_1	int	Films in their first week
pdm_en_entrees	float	Market share by admissions

Search by City or Name

Use the search() function for full-text matching on a specific field.

GET /api/explore/v2.1/catalog/datasets/etablissements-cinematographiques/records?where=search(commune,"Marseille")&limit=20

Combine with other filters using AND:

?where=search(commune,"Paris") AND ecrans>=5

Search by cinema name:

?where=search(nom,"Pathe")

Search by Region or Department

Region values are uppercase. Common values: ILE DE FRANCE, AUVERGNE-RHONE-ALPES, PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE D'AZUR, OCCITANIE, NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE, HAUTS-DE-FRANCE, GRAND EST, PAYS DE LA LOIRE, BRETAGNE, NORMANDIE, BOURGOGNE-FRANCHE-COMTE, CENTRE-VAL DE LOIRE, CORSE, OUTRE-MER.

?where=region_administrative="BRETAGNE"&limit=50

By department number:

?where=dep="75"

Geographic Proximity Search

Find cinemas within a radius of a point. Coordinates use longitude first, then latitude (POINT(lon lat)).

?where=within_distance(geolocalisation, geom'POINT(2.3522 48.8566)', 5km)

This returns cinemas within 5 km of central Paris. Supported units: m, km, mi, yd, ft.

Combine with other filters:

?where=within_distance(geolocalisation, geom'POINT(2.3522 48.8566)', 10km) AND ae="AE"

Filter by Type

Art et Essai cinemas (independent/arthouse):

?where=ae="AE"

Multiplexes (8+ screens):

?where=multiplexe="OUI"

Fixed venues only (excludes itinerant and seasonal):

?where=genre="Fixe"

Sorting and Pagination

Sort by any numeric field. Use desc for descending.

?order_by=entrees_2022 desc&limit=10

Paginate with offset:

?limit=20&offset=40

Maximum limit is 100 per request. Use offset to iterate through all results.

Selecting Fields

Return only specific fields to reduce response size:

?select=nom,commune,ecrans,fauteuils,entrees_2022&limit=10

Aggregation

Group and aggregate data:

?select=region_administrative,count(*) as total,sum(ecrans) as total_screens&group_by=region_administrative&order_by=total desc

Combining Filters

Build complex queries with AND/OR:

?where=region_administrative="BRETAGNE" AND ecrans>=3 AND ae="AE"&order_by=entrees_2022 desc

Large cinemas (10+ screens) in a city:

?where=search(commune,"Lyon") AND ecrans>=10&select=nom,commune,ecrans,fauteuils

Response Format

The API returns JSON. Each response has:

{
  "total_count": 42,
  "results": [
    {
      "nom": "CINEMA EXAMPLE",
      "commune": "PARIS",
      "ecrans": 12,
      "fauteuils": 2800,
      "entrees_2022": 450000,
      "geolocalisation": { "lat": 48.856, "lon": 2.352 },
      ...
    }
  ]
}

total_count gives the total matching records (useful for pagination). results contains the matching cinema records.

Common Recipes

Find the biggest cinema in France:

?order_by=fauteuils desc&limit=1&select=nom,commune,ecrans,fauteuils,entrees_2022

All Art et Essai cinemas in Paris:

?where=dep="75" AND ae="AE"&order_by=nom asc

Cinemas near a user's location (replace coordinates):

?where=within_distance(geolocalisation, geom'POINT(USER_LON USER_LAT)', 15km)&order_by=entrees_2022 desc&limit=10

Rural cinemas with high attendance:

?where=zone_de_la_commune="R" AND entrees_2022>50000&order_by=entrees_2022 desc

Summary statistics by region:

?select=region_administrative,count(*) as cinemas,sum(ecrans) as screens,sum(fauteuils) as seats&group_by=region_administrative&order_by=cinemas desc

Troubleshooting

No results returned

Check that text values are uppercase. Region and city names in this dataset use uppercase (e.g., "LYON" not "Lyon"). The search() function is case-insensitive, but exact equality checks are not.

Invalid query syntax

ODSQL uses double quotes for string values in where clauses. Single quotes are only used for geometry literals (geom'POINT(...)').

Pagination limit

The API returns at most 100 records per request. To retrieve all matching records, loop with offset increments of your limit value until results is empty.