- Home
- Research
Cinema industry data and research, with the sources attached
Most statistics floating around this industry are quoted third-hand from a summary of a summary, and a surprising number of them are simply wrong. These pages carry a named source and a check date against every figure, so you can verify one before you put it in front of a board.
Cinema industry statistics
Box office, admissions and exhibition figures for the global cinema industry, each with a named primary source and a check date.
EuropeEuropean cinema statistics
European box office and admissions for 2025, with the per-country detail UNIC publishes and what the spread between markets actually shows.
Industry dataLargest cinema chains
The world's biggest movie theater chains ranked by screens, with sites, countries and the filing or company source behind every figure.
Industry dataGlobal box office
Worldwide cinema box office from 2015 to 2025, the 2026 forecast, and the latest full-year figures for the fifteen largest markets — every…
Original dataCinema scheduling benchmarks
How 140 independent cinemas actually scheduled one week: start times by hour, shows per day, first and last shows, and the films most…
Original dataCinema website technology report
We crawled 1,189 cinema websites in 35 countries to see which ticketing systems they run, how many have an app, and how many are findable…
TrackerCinema closures and openings 2026
104 cinema closures, openings, reopenings and circuit deals in 2026 so far, each from a named news or company source.
Everything else we maintain for the trade
Cinema glossary
Projection, distribution, box office and accessibility terms, written for the people who run the building.
240 companiesSupplier directory
Projection, sound, seating, software and services — who makes what for a cinema, by category and country.
2,077 filmsFilm release calendar
Theatrical release dates in 25 countries, with running times and certificates.
335 peopleWho's who in cinema
Leaders of circuits, distributors, trade bodies, technology companies and film markets, with sourced roles.
464 distributorsFilm distributors by country
The companies cinemas book films from, taken from association and film institute lists.
30 eventsIndustry events
The trade shows and conventions exhibitors attend, with dates checked against the organiser.
12 toolsFree tools
Calculators, planners and validators that run in the browser, with no sign-up.
39 pagesSoftware comparisons
Cinema software compared from each vendor's own website, with published prices where they exist.
How these pages are put together
Only primary sources. Box office totals come from the reporting services that compile them, European figures from the trade body that collects them from its member associations, and exhibition metrics from the bodies that survey their own members. Where a figure exists only inside a paid analyst report, it is left out rather than laundered through somebody's blog post.
Where two credible sources disagree — and on ticket prices they disagree a lot, because "average" can mean several different things — both are shown and the reason for the gap is explained. Averaging two numbers that measure different things produces a third number that measures nothing.
Figures from a year still in progress are labelled as partial. A year-to-date total compared against a full prior year is the most common way this industry's numbers get misreported.
Measuring your own cinema instead
Market statistics tell you about the market. For the digital side of your own operation, the platform benchmarks give measured figures for profile creation, weekly app engagement and digital ticket growth, with a worksheet to place your own numbers against them.