With takings close to €6.9 billion in 2025, box office remained relatively stable for European cinemas as a whole, a 1% decrease year-on-year, reflecting a 5.3% fall in admissions at 863.6 million.
Box office returns were up on the previous year in Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, UK and Ukraine. Results were on par with 2024 in Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia and Slovakia. Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Serbia and Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden saw reduced revenues year-on-year.
Commenting on the figures, UNIC CEO Laura Houlgatte said: “European cinemas achieved encouraging results overall in 2025 thanks to a mix of local hits and US blockbusters, although some countries faced challenges due to an uneven release schedule. However, 2026 looks set to pack a punch with a very strong slate of films and continuing investment by cinema operators. These two ingredients – great films and a great experience – are the key to cinematic success. With a consistent pipeline of quality, diverse genres and well-marketed titles, backed by a significant period of exclusivity, cinemas are the best place to enjoy the magic of film.”
Best performing countries
In Germany, cinemas recorded a 6.4% year-on-year increase in box office with €924 million in takings, while admissions increased by 2.1% to 91.9 million tickets. Local films accounted for 27.4% of total admissions – their highest level since 2022. The top film of 2025 was home-grown comedy Manitou’s Canoe, a sequel to 2001 hit Manitou's Shoe, which recorded over 5 million admissions and €50.9 million at the box office. Another local success, The School of Magical Animals 4, ranked seventh in the top films of the year, achieving nearly 3 million admissions and taking €24.7 million at the box office.
Austria achieved a record 11% increase in box office revenues at €124.6 million. The Christmas comedy Aufputzt is’ surged to second place among the country’s all-time most popular films by admissions, attracting close to 442,000 cinema-goers in just nine weeks.
In Denmark, admissions soared to 10.3 million, up 4.5% compared with 2024. Danish films contributed to a record 37% national market share, against 24% in 2024. The key local films were Checkered Ninja 3 and The Last Viking, with six Danish films in the top 10, five of which were handled by Nordisk Film Distribution.
Norway saw a 7.7% increase in box office and 2.5% increase in admissions. Norwegian films performed particularly well, with a market share of 28.8% and five local titles in the top 10. The most successful film of 2025 was the Norwegian family comedy A Mouse Hunt for Christmas, which drew close to 451,000 admissions and outperformed all major Hollywood releases. Second World War film The Battle of Oslo ranked among the top five releases with nearly 377,000 admissions. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which premiered at Cannes and received nine Oscar nominations, achieved more than 250,000 admissions and made the weekly top 10 in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and UK & Ireland between the end of 2025 and early 2026.
In Croatia, box office totalled €22.5 million, up 13.3% year-on-year. Croatian productions and co-productions accounted for 7% of the box office, up from 3.1%. Three local titles performed particularly well: the children's film Second Diary of Paulina P., with 74,250 admissions, war of independence film 260 Days, with nearly 64,000 tickets sold and Igor Bezinović's Fiume o morte!, the country’s most-watched documentary ever, with close to 39,000 admissions.
Italy grossed €496.6 million with 68.4 million tickets sold, an increase of 0.5% in revenues. The market share for locally made films was 32.7% by box office, the highest since 2016. Buen Camino, starring comedian Checco Zalone and released on Christmas Day, took €36 million in only seven days, becoming the top film of 2025. It is now the highest grossing film ever in Italy, surpassing 2009’s Avatar.
Hungary saw a 3.4% increase in box office. The local market share was 17.3%, up by over 4 percentage points. Local film How Could I Live Without You?, released in December 2024, broke a four-decade record with more than one million admissions domestically, screening in cinemas for an unprecedented 53 weeks.
In Poland, revenues were up 1.3%, while admissions increased 0.3%. The local market share by box office is estimated at 27%. Warner Bros’ Good Home (Dom Dobry) was the most popular Polish film of the year, with 2.4 million admissions. Three other local titles made the top 10: In-Laws 3, a new instalment in the family comedy saga; Kleks Academy 2, a young adult adventure film that sold nearly 1.2 million tickets, and Graduation Heist, about secondary school seniors waiting for their final exam and starring popular YouTubers, which recorded over 1 million admissions.
The UK grossed £989.5 million at the box office, a 1.2% increase. Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy was the top local production in UK & Ireland, accounting for more than £46.4 million in box office revenues and ranking second in the yearly top 10 films overall.
More challenging year for some territories
Some countries saw a more mixed picture with falls in revenue and admissions. A lack of strong local titles affected results in France and Spain. France recorded 156.8 million admissions, a 13.6% drop from 2024 which was a particularly successful year. The biggest French hit in 2025, God Save the Tuche, sold 2.95 million tickets compared with 11 million admissions for Un p’tit truc en plus, the most successful French film of 2024. Nonetheless, the local market share by admissions was 37.7%.
Spain registered 65 million admissions, an 11% drop, with box office takings of €453 million. While revenues saw a 3% increase in the first half of the year, they decreased by 16% in the second half of 2025 due to weak results, especially in October and November.
In Portugal, admissions decreased 8.2%, while revenues fell by 3.9% year-on-year, a record-low. The only Portuguese-language title to enter the yearly top 10 was the Brazilian Oscar-winning drama I’m Still Here, which drew 385,000 admissions.
Sweden saw admissions of 9.8 million, down year-on-year from 10.3 million. The market share of Swedish films also fell sharply to an estimated 10%, compared with 22% in 2024 – which was the highest level recorded in almost ten years. The decline seems to have been largely due to a lack of domestic releases.
Hollywood’s most-watched
Hollywood studio titles continued to represent a substantial share of the European market. The most-watched films across the EMEA region included Disney’s Zootopia 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash and Lilo & Stitch, Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie, Universal’s Wicked: For Good, Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Sony’s 28 Years Later.
A Minecraft Movie topped the box office in Poland, the UK & Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, Croatia, Lithuania and Estonia, and was the second most popular film in Norway, Portugal and Latvia. Avatar: Fire and Ash dominated European markets in late 2025, recording the highest opening of the year in major territories including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland. Zootopia 2 was the most-watched film in France, third in Poland and Portugal, fourth in Italy. Lilo & Stitch ranked first in Spain and Portugal, second in France, Italy and Croatia, and fourth in Germany and the UK & Ireland.
New and original stories performed well, including F1, ranking third in France with 3.3 million admissions and making 70% of its revenue overseas. Other notable successes included Sinners, the eighth highest-grossing horror film of all time worldwide with the most nominations in Oscars history, and Materialists, which achieved modest success in the US but was a box office winner in Europe, with its top international markets including Germany, UK and Spain.
Investment and Cinema Days
Cinema investment in infrastructure, technology, image and sound, customer experience and comfort continued to be a feature of the sector throughout 2025 across large and smaller European circuits.
For example, major and independent operators in the UK opened eleven new or refurbished cinemas – totalling more than 80 screens. A German study¹ has shown that modernisation in technology and auditorium comfort can increase visitor numbers by up to 30% and secure the long-term future of cinema as a cultural venue.
Other initiatives such as ‘National Cinema Days’ also boosted attendance. Germany’s fourth Kinofest was the most successful edition to date with 1.65 million tickets sold in just two days and the most-attended cinema weekend of the decade. The Netherlands reported a successful second edition of Bioscoop 10-daagse (B10D), with 10 days of special deals, events and promotion of cinema-going. It resulted in a doubled market share for Dutch films, higher occupancy rate and increased number of participating venues. Sweden’s Stora Biodagen recorded 125,000 admissions, making it the biggest cinema day of the year.
Forecast for 2026
Gower Street Analytics estimates that the 2026 global box office will grow by $1.5 billion to $35 billion, with EMEA estimated to reach $10.05 billion, a 7% increase compared with 2025 estimates.
January 2026 saw positive results across the EMEA region, the second-best month since 2019 with $1.15 billion in box office takings, a 25% increase on the same period last year, driven by a diverse mix of global hits for varied audiences alongside strong local titles. France generated a year-on-year growth in admissions of 16.6%, Italy +18.6% and Germany stood out with +27.3%.
2026’s slate looks very promising with diverse international original and franchise titles scheduled for the months ahead including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Dune Part Three, Avengers: Doomsday, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Minions 3, Scream 7, Wuthering Heights by Emerald Fennell, Digger by Alejandro Inarritu, as well as much anticipated local productions such as De Gaulle, a two-part biopic by Antonin Baudry, Bitter Christmas by Pedro Almodovar and The Entertainment System is Down by Ruben Östlund.
Attachment
Table with tentative market performance indicators for 2025 (where available) - see p.5.
Notes for editors
The Union Internationale des Cinémas/International Union of Cinemas is the European grouping of cinema trade associations and key operators, covering 39 territories across the region. More information available on unic-cinemas.org.
Sources
UNIC members. Complementary information from Comscore, Gower Street, European Audiovisual Observatory, BE (Film Matters), BG (Национален филмов център), CY (DJK Group), CZ (Unie Filmovych Distributoru), DE (FFA – Filmförderungsanstalt), FR (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée), GR (Hellenic Film & Audiovisual Center), HU (Nemzeti Filmiroda Főosztály), IE (Pearl&Dean), LU (Film Matters), PT (Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual), RO (Cinemagia).
Contact
International Union of Cinemas (UNIC)
1: “Impact of investments in cinema infrastructure on visitor and revenue increases”, survey by the Cineplex Group, Wuppertal, September 2023