Europe’s cinema industry closed 2025 with admissions down 5 percent to 795 million, a decline driven primarily by weakness in the traditionally robust French market and a broadly underwhelming performance from Hollywood’s major releases. While the numbers mark yet another data point in the industry’s prolonged post-pandemic recalibration, the fine print reveals a continental market grappling with shifting audience appetites and a franchise economy that is delivering diminishing returns.
US studio films retained their iron grip on the European charts, claiming 18 of the top 20 spots. Yet the headline numbers expose a widening gap from pre-pandemic performance: only 12 of those US titles managed to cross the 10 million ticket threshold, compared to 20 films before Covid-19 reshaped the theatrical landscape. Franchises accounted for 16 of the top 20 films, underlining both the industry’s dependence on established IP and audiences’ increasingly selective approach to the multiplex.
“Only 12 US titles crossed 10 million tickets — compared to 20 before the pandemic.”
The year’s chart-topper, Minecraft — the live-action adaptation of the gaming phenomenon — sold 29 million tickets across the continent. That figure, while enough to secure the number one slot, tells a sobering story when measured against 2024’s leader Inside Out 2, which moved 51 million tickets. Lilo & Stitch followed closely at 28 million admissions, with Zootopia 2 rounding out the top three at 27 million. As a late 2025 release, Zootopia 2 continued its theatrical run into 2026, alongside Avatar: Fire and Ash, which ranked fourth for the year.
European Diversity Challenges Old Hierarchies
Among the more striking findings is the composition of the top 20 European films, which displayed what analysts are calling an “unusual diversity” in nationality — a direct challenge to the historical dominance of French and British titles. Ten of those films were local breakout stories, defined as productions where more than 80 percent of admissions occurred in their home market. Eight others generated the majority of their ticket sales outside their country of origin, demonstrating genuine cross-border appeal. Among that latter group: the British Paddington in Peru, the Italian Maria, and the Latvian animated feature Flow.
Across all releases, 112 films surpassed the 1 million admissions benchmark, including 41 European titles — a figure consistent with 2024 but well short of pre-pandemic norms, when 155 films cleared that threshold, 63 of them European. Collectively, the 20 best-performing films of 2025 generated 278 million admissions, representing 35 percent of Europe’s total box office for the year.