Throughout 2024, movie theaters across the United States and Canada sold about 823 million tickets, down from just over 830 million tickets in the previous year. Yet the 2023 figures corresponds to around two-thirds of the nearly 1.23 billion movie tickets sold in 2019.

The source estimated that movie theaters across the globe would have sold *** billion tickets by the end of 2022, up ** percent from the previous year. Despite the increase and the continuous growth forecast for the following years, the annual figure was projected to catch up with pre-pandemic standards only by 2026 – when it will amount to *** million movie tickets, the same number recorded in 2017. The same source forecast that the global box office revenue will grow by ** percent in 2023.

In 2024, cinema admission was down from 1.3 billion to 1.01 billion in China — only 58 percent of the pre-pandemic peak in 2019. Hollywood blockbusters found it challenging to compete with Chinese domestically produced films, which accounted for almost 80 percent of the local movie market.

Throughout 2024, cinemas across the United Kingdom sold approximately 126.51 million tickets, up from 123.62 million movie tickets a year earlier. Yet the 2024 figure is still under the number of admissions recorded in 2019: in the last year before the COVID-19 outbreak, movie theaters in the UK sold more than 176 million tickets. Ticket price & box office revenue Despite the decrease in the number of movie tickets sold since the coronavirus spread, the average price of a cinema admission in the UK reached 7.73 British pounds in 2024. But this was not enough to push the British box office revenue even further. In 2024, the figure stood at about 978 million pounds, less than the 1.25-billion-pound box office revenue recorded in 2019. Success abroad According to another source, the United Kingdom/Ireland region is among the top five box office markets worldwide, with a revenue of approximately 1.36 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Yet the impact of British cinema knows no boundaries. That same year, the global box office revenue of films made in the UK added up to 6.1 billion dollars, almost the double of the 3.4 billion dollars amassed in the previous year.

In 2023, cinemas in France sold the highest number of movie tickets across Europe at ***** million of admissions. Russia and Germany followed on second and third positions with about *** and ** million tickets respectively.

Throughout 2022, box offices in India sold over *** million movie tickets. The figure surpasses those of China, the United States, Mexico, and Japan altogether. Between 2021 and 2022, the box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada grew by **** percent, whereas the Chinese box office revenue decreased significantly.

The global revenue in the 'Cinema Tickets' segment of the eservices market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 1.8 billion U.S. dollars (+10.66 percent). After the eighth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 18.9 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2028. Find more information concerning China and the United Kingdom. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In 2024, movie theaters in Canada and the United States sold more than 259 million to films that, according to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), contained some material that could be inappropriate for people under 13, also known as PG-13 movies. In 2022, a total of 455 million tickets were sold for the whole year.

This graph depicts the development of cinema ticket sales in Germany from 2012 to 2028. In 2023, sales amounted to 929 million euros. For 2028, sales are expected to increase to around 1,2 billion euros.

Throughout 2023, movie theaters across Europe sold approximately *** million tickets, up **** percent from the previous year. Despite the growth, the 2023 figure was still under the nearly ****-billion attendance recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. Similarly, Europe's box office gross increased in 2023, yet fell behind pre-pandemic heights.

In 2024, around 123.1 million movie tickets were sold in South Korea, a significant recovery from the record low of 59.5 million movie tickets sold in 2020. The box office revenue has also shown signs of recovery, with about 1.3 trillion South Korean won in revenue. However, in both cases there was a decrease compared to the previous year.A year of big hitsWhile 2019 had been a great year for South Korean cinema and movie theaters, with the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the industry was hit hard. Recovery began in 2021, and the industry continues to be centered mainly around big blockbuster movies. The biggest movie of the year was "Exhuma", a horror movie with mystery and occult elements. The most viewed foreign production was the Disney movie "Inside Out 2". American productions accounted for around 35 percent of the box office revenue that year, while domestic moves contributed about half of the total revenue. As of June 2024, "Extreme Job" was the highest-grossing domestic movie ever to be shown in South Korea, while "Avatar: The Way of Water" was the highest-grossing foreign movie. Cinemas and COVID-19After the huge success in 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) slowed ticket sales immensely. While the ticket sales revenue in January 2020 stood at around 143.7 billion won, one year later the sales revenue was only at 15.8 billion won. By December 2023 this had risen to 164.3 billion won, exceeding the January 2020 figure. The number of visitors went down from 16.8 million to just 1.8 million respectively, before recovering to around 16.7 million in December of 2023. While regular cinemas were struggling, consumers found other ways to watch movies, for example by visiting drive-in cinemas or using online streaming services.

In 2021, people who identified as Caucasian and/or White bought approximately 57 percent of all movie tickets sold in the United States and Canada. Hispanic and/or Latino consumers accounted for 23 percent of the purchases.

In 2023, 180.4 million cinema tickets were sold in France. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the number of cinema tickets sold in the country kept increasing and peaked at more than 213.2 million in 2019. 2020 recorded the lowest value yet due to the coronavirus pandemic that led to the closure of cinemas. A growing industry Just like the number of ticket sales, the number of seats has increased in the country and reached 1.16 million seats in 2022, compared to 1.05 in 2009. In 2023, there were more than 6,300 active cinema screens in France, also a growing number over the past decade. But screens are not the only increasing element within the French cinema industry: the number of feature films produced in France is also growing. Proud of its so-called “cultural exception”, France produced 298 national feature movies in 2023, while local movies represent a significant part of ticket sales in the country. Moviegoers in France In a survey from 2024, almost half of French people declared that they went to the movies at least once every month. Despite the development of online streaming, the French seem to enjoy the experience of going to a movie theater. In 2023, Avatar: The Way of Water, the most successful movie in France, recorded more than 63 million euros of box office revenue. France recorded one of the highest domestic movies' share in cinema attendance in Europe, with more than a third of movies.

In 2023, kids fiction movies sold just over 151 million tickets across the United States and Canada, up from around 107 million a year earlier. Despite the growth, the 2023 figure still accounted for about one-half of the nearly 280-million attendance recorded in 2019, before the pandemic. The ranking of the most-viewed child fiction films in the U.S. and Canada in 2023 included "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "The Little Mermaid."

Throughout 2024, Mexican movie theaters sold 217 million tickets, down from 233 million in the previous year – an annual decrease of around seven percent. Still, the 2024 figure corresponds to nearly two-thirds of the 350 million movie tickets sold in 2019. Meanwhile, the box office revenue in Mexico more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2024.

Throughout 2023, movie theaters across Denmark sold approximately 9.7 million tickets, down two percent from 9.89 million a year earlier. Moreover, the 2023 figure amounted to around 78 percent of the 12.5 million movie tickets sold in 2019, before the pandemic. Altogether, the Capital and the Central regions accounted for more than half of the cinema attendance in Denmark.

In December of 2024, around 13 million movie tickets were sold in South Korea. Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak at the beginning of 2020, ticket sales in South Korea have been dropping. In January 2021, the number of sold tickets was at around 1.79 million, while around 16.84 million tickets were sold in the same period in the previous year. January 2022 saw some recovery compared to January 2021, but sales were still far below pre-pandemic levels. As of May 2022, ticket sales have drastically picked up again.

In 1970, movie theater attendance in the Soviet Union was more than five times higher than attendance rates in the United States, before this difference gradually dropped in the following two decades. In 1980, there were over one billion cinema tickets sold in the U.S., compared to 4.3 billion in the USSR. Cinema in the Cold War During the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet Union used cinema as an effective tool for propaganda, both domestically and internationally. The U.S. film industry was already much more advanced than that of the Soviet Union, which did not start to create large numbers of films until the 1960s. The rise in popularity of spy thrillers was reflective of the political climate, censorship laws prevented criticism or any potential negative light being cast upon the respective governments, and war films tapped into the patriotic side of the audience. Stalin himself was heavily involved in the censorship and direction of the Soviet film industry until his death in 1953, from which point censorship gradually became more relaxed. While Hollywood was the global leader in film production during the Cold War, the embargo of American films in the East Bloc allowed creators there to replicate popular films from Hollywood, and new genres such as the "Eastern" or "Red Western" (the east's version of cowboy or western films) emerged. Attendance differences The main factor that contributed to the difference in theater attendance were the fact that the Soviet Union had upwards of ten times the number of movie theaters than the U.S. in the 1970s, while television and VCR ownership was much higher in the U.S. and provided a greater variety of entertainment. Additionally, the later development of the film industry in the USSR meant that this was still a comparatively "new" pastime in the Soviet Union, whereas going to the cinema was less of a novelty in the U.S.. In 1986, Soviet citizens went to the cinema, on average, 13 to 14 times per year, in comparison, U.S. citizens went between four and five times per year.

In 2022, theaters across Denmark sold more than 9.89 million movie tickets, of which nearly 3.72 million (or about 37 percent) were purchased in the country's Capital region. The Central region accounted for 2.15 million ticket sales (or around 21 percent) of the total that year. Denmark's box office revenue grew by 52 percent in 2022.

In 2023, movie theaters across Australia sold 58.1 million cinema tickets, a slight increase from the previous year. This suggests that cinema attendance has been recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic.