244 Million Euros Distributed to French Youth Over Seven Years: Theater Tickets Went Unused

Imagine an 18-year-old who is given several hundred euros to spend freely on culture, and who, at decision time, consistently bypasses the theatre option to rush toward the comic shelves or music streaming platforms.

This scene, far from being an isolated case, sums up quite well what the first major assessment of the Pass Culture reveals, the scheme launched to open the doors of theaters, museums, and bookstores to an entire generation. As schools resume their cultural partnerships with young beneficiaries, a detailed report reminds us that initial intentions and actual usages do not always align.

Seven years after its creation, and despite a budget that has exploded, the scheme still struggles to bring young people toward live performance, this facet of culture meant to embody access to rarer and more demanding practices.

244 million euros and a finding that unsettles culture for all

The figure alone is dizzying. The Pass Culture allocation rose from 92 million euros in 2021 to 244 million euros today, a dramatic leap that reflects both the scheme’s success among young people and the scale of the budgetary effort undertaken by the state. When including projects carried out within the school framework, the total bill even climbs to 324 million euros per year. A sum that now places the Pass’s managing entity, a dedicated SAS, in second place among organizations funded by the Ministry of Culture, just behind the National Library of France.

Facing this rise in financial power, the Court of Auditors sought to verify whether public money actually reached its initial objective: democratizing access to culture for the youngest and most distant from these practices. The finding is nuanced, almost paradoxical. The scheme reaches young people aged 18-20 heavily, with a beneficiary rate reaching 84 % of this age group, but it remains less effective for those who would most need guidance toward culture. In other words, the pass attracts those who already consumed culture, more than it converts the indifferent.

Books take the lead, but not as one might think

Not surprisingly, books remain the safe harbor for young pass users. According to the Court of Auditors’ precise figures, book purchases account for between 42 and 55 % of quarterly expenditures, a substantial figure but far less than the 75 % sometimes cited in simplifying rhetoric. Reading thus remains the most natural cultural practice for this generation, likely because it stays accessible, unobtrusive, and compatible with habits already established since middle school.

Behind this overall success of books lies an evolution that few commentators anticipated. Manga, long considered the near-exclusive engine of literary purchases financed by the pass, has receded sharply: it now accounts for only 20 % of book purchases in 2024, down from nearly 40 % in 2021. A shift that deserves emphasis, as it challenges the image of a Pass Culture solely designed to fund manga collections in adolescents’ rooms.

Does this decline benefit other genres, more classical or more demanding? Since 2024, literature in the broad sense, including young adult novels, poetry, and even readable theatre texts, now accounts for 40 % of book purchases. The Court of Auditors remains cautious about the interpretation of this shift, but the signal is clear enough to evoke a gradual diversification of young people’s literary tastes, even if it remains timid and fragile.

Cinema and music perform well, live performance lags

While books dominate, they are not alone on the podium. Cinema accounts for 21 % of expenditures in value, a figure that confirms the dark room still holds real appeal for 15- to 20-year-olds, despite competition from home streaming. Recorded music is nearly on par with 23 %, driven, not surprisingly, by digital habits and subscriptions to listening platforms that this generation has mastered since childhood.

These two sectors share a key common trait: they rely on habits already deeply rooted in the daily lives of the young beneficiaries. Watching a film or listening to an album requires neither special organization, nor anticipation, nor burdensome travel. The Pass Culture here merely accompanies preexisting practices, without needing to persuade or remove real cultural barriers.

It is precisely here that the assessment becomes darker for the scheme’s organizers. Live performance, regularly touted as one of the pillars of the democratization of culture sought, remains largely shunned. A single figure suffices to measure the scope of the problem: only 7 % of young people have booked at least one performance with the pass. Theatre, dance, or in-venue concerts therefore struggle to find their audience, despite hundreds of millions of euros injected into the system since its creation.

Why theatre remains on the sidelines despite 244 million euros invested

How can one explain such disinterest in a cultural offering that is nonetheless rich and diverse in most French towns? Several threads emerge in the report. A lack of knowledge about local programming certainly plays a role, as does the hesitation toward venues still perceived as codified spaces reserved for an initiated audience. Added to this is a more structural factor: the absence of cultural transmission upstream, from childhood, which makes discovering live performance far less spontaneous than discovering a film or a novel.

The scheme was designed from the outset to reduce these access inequalities by giving each young person the financial means to step through the doors of a theatre. On this point, the objective still seems far from achieved, despite the scale of the sums mobilized over seven consecutive years. The Court of Auditors does not mince words on this, just as Culture Minister Rachida Dati did in a statement, who acknowledged that “while the scheme has notable success, it is not the tool of cultural democratization that its initiators had envisioned.”

The report also highlights an even more surprising anomaly: more than 16 million euros were spent on board games, a category that, according to the Court, “should never have been considered within the scope of eligible offers.” Some of this funding even financed escape rooms, far from the cultural ambitions stated at the pass’s launch. This only fuels the sense of a generous scheme, but sometimes poorly calibrated in its actual uses.

In the end, these figures sketch a chiaroscuro assessment. The Pass Culture has undeniably broadened the practices of cultural consumption among French youths, giving them the means to read more, go to the cinema more often, and subscribe to music services. But it has not yet managed, at least for now, to overturn a stubborn hierarchy between easily accessible practices and those perceived as more intimidating or more demanding. Theatre, dance, and live venues continue to wait for an audience that money alone does not seem to bring. It remains to be seen whether the coming years will reverse this trend, or if seats will remain on the shelves, lacking deeper cultural mediation upstream of the program.