🎦 European Cinema Attendance Declines

The European market’s cumulative box office revenue experienced a less pronounced decline, dipping just 1.2% to settle at €6.9 billion. Analysts attribute this dynamic to rising ticket price inflation alongside highly uneven box office distribution across individual regions.

UNIC identifies the primary drivers of this imbalance as an “unstable release schedule from US studios” and an “acute shortage of strong local titles in select markets.” Consequently, while several countries slipped into negative territory, others managed to improve their metrics. Box office growth was recorded in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and several other nations.

The United Kingdom concluded the year up 1.2%, generating £990.5 million. This success was driven by a balanced performance between Hollywood blockbuster A Minecraft Movie (£52.3 million) and strong domestic release Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (£43.3 million). Conversely, France suffered a sharp downturn: attendance plummeted by 13.9% to 156.2 million tickets sold, with local hit God Save the Tuche drawing a mere 3 million admissions. Spain also contracted by 5% to €453 million; despite a strong first half (+3%), the market experienced a 16% collapse in box office returns during the latter half of the year.

Hollywood tentpoles continue to form the baseline of the European cinema business. The highest-grossing and most-viewed features in the region for 2025 included the animated film Zootopia 2, sci-fi blockbusters Avatar: Fire and Ash and Jurassic World Rebirth, live-action adaptations Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie, as well as thrillers Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, 28 Years Later, and The Conjuring: Last Rites.