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PARIS -- French cinema attendance dipped in the first three months of the year, an 11% drop on figures for the same period last year, Gallic exhibition body the Federation Nationale des Cinemas Francais said Thursday. The FNCF blamed the shortfall of almost 6 million tickets on the movies unspooling during the period. During the first three months of 2004, the top 10 new releases included newcomer Yann Moix's debut hit Podium, which drew in 3.5 million viewers, and the Walt Disney Co.'s Brother Bear, pulling in 3.4 million. French Jackass-style caper The 11 Commandments and Tom Cruise starrer The Last Samurai saw ticket sales of 2.9 million and 2.2 million, respectively. This year, the only film to sell more than 2 million tickets in the first three months was local comedy Iznogood, which tipped 2.5 million by the end of March.

American comedies, for the most part, are not known to travel well, but judging from its overseas reception, Meet the Fockers, a comedy stemming from a meeting of future in-laws, represents a ritual that is universal. The laugh offering starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand scored a hefty $28.2 million overseas over the weekend, marked by eight new openings and top-of-the market rankings in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. In France, the DreamWorks/United International Pictures release opened No. 1 in the Paris metropolitan area but was narrowly beaten nationally by TFM's local entry Iznogoud, which took in $4.1 million from 664 screens to Fockers' $4 million from 599. Fockers, however, had the higher per-screen average -- $6,720 to $6,230.