Throughout 2024, movie theaters in the United States and Canada managed to sell around 762 million tickets, which is a bit less than the 2023 figure of about 820 million tickets. However, the 2024 figure still falls short of the nearly 1.23 billion movie tickets sold in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. Cinema's slow recovery after the coronavirus The pandemic also impacted on cinemas' finances. The revenue at the so-called North American box office – consisting of Canada and The U.S. – stood just below 8.6 billion dollars in 2024. That value remained well under the figure recorded in 2019. The box office revenue in Canada alone struggled even more, adding up to 600 million Canadian dollars in 2023, barely more than half the value reported four years earlier. Newer audiences and how to attract them The coronavirus outbreak has not changed the fact that teenagers watched the highest number of movies per year in the U.S. The 12-17 age group watched, on average, 2.5 feature films at a movie theater in 2021, or five times more than moviegoers aged 60 and above. According to a mid-2021 survey, variety in titles is what most motivated GenZers to attend movie theaters. This suggests that diversity may still be the spice of life – at least on the big screen.

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 2024, theater attendance at cinemas run by AMC Theatres added up to approximately *** million, down from around *** million one year before. Furthermore, AMC Theatres' revenue for 2024 amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars, with **** billion dollars generated from box office admissions.

In 2024, theater attendance at cinemas run by Cineplex Inc. added up to around ***** million, down from ** million a year earlier. Still, the 2024 figure amounts to more than a half of the ***** million recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Overall attendance at AMC's movie theaters decline slightly between 2023 and 2024. Within the United States, the figure decreased to nearly *** million from ****** million in 2023. Moreover, In the rest of the world, attendance stood at ***** million in the same year.

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.

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 2024, attendance at movie theaters run by Cinemark worldwide added up to approximately 201.1 million, down from 209.8 million a year earlier – an annual decrease of about 4.1 percent. Attendance at Cinemark's movie theaters in the United States decreased similarly in 2024.

According to a recent survey, ** percent of GenZers reported going to the movies one to two times in the past month. The shares for millennials and GenXers were ** and ** percent, respectively. However, only ** percent of baby boomers mentioned visiting the movie theater one or two times in the past month. It is worth noting that a significant number of respondents across all generations did not visit a movie theater in the last ** days, with baby boomers being the largest group at ** percent.

In 2023, 14 percent of American GenZers reported an increased movie theater attendance post-pandemic, while 27 percent were less interested in watching movies in theaters. On the other hand, Millennials and GenXers, with 18 and ten percent respectively, went more frequently to the cinema compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2024, attendance at movie theaters run by Cinemark across the United States stood at nearly 123 million, down from 127.7 million a year earlier – an annual decrease of 3.8 percent. Cinemark's net income amounted to 309.7 million U.S. dollars in 2024.

This statistic contains attendance data for Regal Cinemas. In 2017, 196.9 million people attended movies at Regal theaters. Regal Cinemas is the largest movie theater circuit in the United States with more than 7,300 screens in 560 locations across the country (as of December 2017). The average ticket price at Regal cinemas has increased in recent years in line with the national trend. In 2009, seeing a movie at a Regal cinema would set a consumer back 8.15 U.S. dollars, but, in 2017, an average movie ticket at a Regal cinema cost 10.20 U.S. dollars, more than one dollar above the national average. On the back of these increasing prices, the Regal Entertainment Group was able to announce record revenue of 3.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. This revenue fell slightly to 3.16 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.

In 2023, 11.2 million people went to see a movie in a cinema in Sweden. In 2020, due to the context of the coronavirus pandemic crisis, the number of cinema admissions in Sweden decreased significantly. Likewise in 2021, the number stayed at this low level compared to pre-pandemic years. In the past years, movie theater attendance decreased steadily. In comparison, in 2016, cinemas in the Scandinavian country recorded 17.8 million moviegoers.

Throughout 2023, movie theaters across the Netherlands sold 31.3 million tickets, up from 24.8 million a year earlier. Despite the increase, the 2022 figure amounted to less than the record-high cinema attendance (39 million) reported in 2019, before the pandemic. Still, the number of movie theaters in the Netherlands increased between 2019 and 2023.

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.

Throughout 2023, Pathé Theatres sold approximately 14.09 million movie tickets across the Netherlands. That accounted for around 45 percent of the Netherlands' cinema attendance that year. Independent cinemas collectively sold almost 6.64 million tickets or 21 percent of the total.

In 2023, the proportion of Australians attending the cinema at least once per year was around ** percent. Historically, cinema attendance in Australia has been around the ** percent mark. In 2020 and 2021, the attendance rates dropped drastically due to mandatory closures of cinemas during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they have started to recover in recent years. Ticket prices Steady attendance in recent years can be attributed, at least in part, to there only having been small fluctuations in ticket prices. In 2021, the average price of a cinema ticket was ***** Australian dollars; an increase of one dollar from the previous year. Overall, average prices have increased by less than **** dollars since 2007. Maximum ticket prices have seen similarly small fluctuations across the same time frame. The maximum price in both 2017 and 2018 (as well as 2013 and 2014) was ** Australian dollars. In other years, and despite a 2011 peak of ***** Australian dollars, prices settled between ** and ** dollars. Cinemas An additional factor that has helped cinema attendance and keeping ticket prices low is the dominance of independently owned cinema screens in Australia. In 2021, there were a total of *** screens that were independently owned in the country. By comparison, the largest chain by number of screens, Event Cinemas, owned *** and Hoyts owned ***. Of course, cinemas would not attract visitors without films to go and see. The enduring popularity in recent years of Marvel films, amongst others, has also driven cinema attendance. In 2021, two of the most successful films at the box office were Marvel productions; Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which took total box office revenue in Australia of **** million U.S. dollars, and Black Wodow, which took **** million U.S. dollars.

In 2023, movie theaters across Chile sold approximately 24 million tickets, up from 18 million a year earlier – an increase of 33.5 percent. Chile recorded the sixth-highest cinema attendance in Latin America in 2023.

This statistic shows the average attendance in movie theaters by weekday in Italy in 2017. According to data, Italian audience preferred to go to the cinema on Sunday, when 25.5 million viewers were reported in the considered year. Among workdays, Wednesday was the most preferred with an attendance of 14.4 million persons.

In 2021, movie theaters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, sold approximately 2.41 million tickets, up 32 percent from 1.83 million tickets a year earlier. But the 2021 figure accounts for only a quarter of the 9.51 million tickets sold in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. The total number of movie tickets sold in Argentina stood at 13.3 million in 2021.