Selected markets across Europe, Asia and Australia reported stronger revenue or attendance during the first half of 2026, with China the major exception and domestic productions increasingly powering the rebound.

One year ago, the international theatrical recovery still looked fragile, uneven and heavily dependent on a limited supply of major releases. By the midpoint of 2026, the picture across many of the markets reporting first-half results had changed considerably.

Box office revenue or attendance increased in France, the UK and Ireland, Portugal, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and India during the first six months of the year. Several territories posted double-digit gains, while Australia recorded its first run of three consecutive months above AUD $100 million (USD $69.5 million) at the box office.

China stood conspicuously apart, suffering a 40.6% decline and recording its weakest non-pandemic first half in more than a decade.

The available results do not constitute a comprehensive worldwide survey. They cover selected markets in Europe, Asia and Australia, but do not yet include Latin America or Africa. The United States and Canada, meanwhile, are generally classified by the film industry as the domestic market rather than international territories.

Even with those limitations, the numbers point toward a much broader recovery than was visible only 12 months ago. More importantly, they suggest that two related but distinct recoveries are taking place.

Cinemas are recovering because audiences have been given a more consistent supply of appealing films. Hollywood is benefiting from that improvement, but not always leading it. In several territories, local-language productions are generating the biggest breakthroughs and taking a larger portion of the audience with them.

For exhibitors, a ticket sold is a ticket sold. For Hollywood studios, the distinction becomes rather more interesting once the rental statements arrive.

Europe Finds Its Footing
France delivered one of the strongest first-half performances among the markets reporting results. Admissions increased 19.7% year over year to approximately 90.1 million, generating an estimated €666 million in box office revenue. June alone drew around 13 million admissions, a 14.6% increase from the same month in 2025.

More encouraging than the headline increase was the breadth of the market. Around 20 films crossed one million admissions, including eight French productions. Local films accounted for an estimated 42.5% of admissions, compared with 47.5% for U.S. titles.

Pathé’s family adventure “Marsupilami” led the market with more than 6.1 million admissions. French releases including “Guru,” “Children of the Resistance,” “Just an Illusion” and “De Gaulle: Resistance” also finished among the year’s strongest performers, alongside Hollywood titles such as “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Michael,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Toy Story 5” and “Hoppers.”

That balance is arguably more significant than any individual hit. France did not recover because one blockbuster arrived, consumed the market and left everyone waiting for the next one. It recovered because enough different films worked for enough different audiences.

The result supports the exhibition industry’s longstanding argument that moviegoing demand has not disappeared. It has simply become less forgiving of thin calendars. The old rule remains undefeated: no slate, no audience.

The UK and Ireland reported a similarly strong start to the year. Box office revenue reached GBP £604.9 million (USD $810.7 million) through the end of June, up 14% from GBP £532.2 million (USD $713.2 million) during the same period in 2025 and 34% ahead of the first half of 2024. Takings increased during five of the first six months, while June revenue rose 29% to GBP £99.4 million (USD $133.2 million).

Unlike France, however, the UK-Ireland market was overwhelmingly powered by American films. Universal’s “Michael” led the year with £52.9 million, followed by “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Project Hail Mary,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Toy Story 5.” Nine of the year-to-date top 10 were wholly or partly U.S.-originated productions.

That makes the territory a useful counterpoint. International recovery does not automatically mean Hollywood is losing ground. Where the U.S. slate is sufficiently broad and commercially appealing, American films can still dominate. The larger issue is that Hollywood can no longer assume that a recovering cinema market will necessarily translate into the same degree of market share it once enjoyed.

Portugal produced a more modest but still positive result. Gross box office revenue increased 5.8% to EUR €37.2 million (USD $42.5 million), even as admissions declined 2% to 5.4 million. The revenue growth came despite a contraction in the country’s exhibition infrastructure, with the number of active screens falling by 42 year over year to 498.

That is not the kind of recovery that produces celebratory champagne towers, but it is recovery nonetheless. In a market operating with fewer screens and slightly fewer admissions, revenue still moved in the right direction.

“The Housemaid” led the Portuguese market with 549,525 admissions and approximately EUR €3.6 million (USD $4.1 million), while Portuguese productions accounted for only 1.5% of attendance.

Portugal therefore presents almost the inverse of France: a market where revenue improved without a major local-film surge. Both are positive outcomes for exhibitors, though they arrived by very different routes.

Australia Strings Together a Historic Run
Australia’s recovery gathered momentum during the second quarter, with cinema admissions increasing 16% year over year during the first half of 2026.

April, May and June each generated more than AUD 100 million at the box office, marking the first time the market had recorded three consecutive months above that threshold. Cinema advertising expenditure also rose 22.6% in May, giving exhibitors another indication that agencies and advertisers are responding to improved audience traffic.

The Australian result was driven primarily by a broad Hollywood and international slate. “Wuthering Heights,” “Project Hail Mary,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” all contributed, while “Michael” became the territory’s highest-grossing film of the year at the halfway point. “Toy Story 5” and “Minions & Monsters” extended the momentum heading into the winter school holidays.

Australia is particularly helpful in separating two ideas that can otherwise become tangled. The international exhibition business is recovering, and local films are gaining ground in several markets—but those are not universally the same story.

In Australia, Hollywood remained the principal engine. The market also shows how exhibitors are using stronger content supply to support investments in IMAX, ScreenX and other premium concepts, including HOYTS’ APEX auditoriums.

The films brought audiences back. The upgraded auditoriums gave some of them a reason to pay more once they arrived.

Local Films Power Several Asian Markets
Across Asia, the first-half picture was more polarized. Hong Kong, South Korea and India reported significant improvement, while China moved sharply in the opposite direction.

Hong Kong box office revenue increased nearly 25% to HKD 664 million (USD $84.6 million), reversing a downward trend that had persisted for several years. The total came from 142 first-run releases, including 17 local productions.

The recovery was led by local films. Jack Ng’s Chinese New Year comedy “Night King” earned HKD 118.1 million (USD $15.1 million), becoming only the fourth Hong Kong production to cross HKD 100 million (USD $12.8 million) and the territory’s third-highest-grossing local film of all time. Longman Leung’s “Cold War 1994,” also produced and distributed by Edko Films, ranked second among local titles with HKD 38.08 million (USD $4.9 million).

International releases still generated meaningful business, led by “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Toy Story 5,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Hoppers.” But the market’s defining success was unmistakably homegrown.

That matters because Hong Kong was not merely experiencing ordinary year-over-year growth. It was reversing a multi-year decline. Local cinema did not simply participate in the rebound; it gave the rebound its identity.

South Korea displayed an even more dramatic domestic-film recovery. Attendance for Korean productions increased 74.9% to 37.4 million, while revenue rose 81.7%. The increase came even though the number of Korean films released declined from 240 to 217.

The result was heavily influenced by a small number of major successes. Historical drama “The King’s Warden” drew 16.9 million admissions, becoming the second-most-attended Korean film in the country’s history. Zombie thriller “Colony” reached 5.86 million admissions, while supernatural horror release “Salmokji: Whispering Water” surpassed 3.2 million.

Those figures come with an important qualification. The number of films exceeding three million admissions actually declined slightly from the first half of 2025. Korea’s recovery was therefore broad in its overall impact but relatively concentrated in its sources.

A handful of films did a great deal of heavy lifting—something the theatrical business has never exactly regarded as an unfamiliar job description.

Still, the return of a Korean film to the closely watched 10-million-admission club represented a substantial change from 2025, when no Korean release reached that threshold for the first time since 2012, excluding the pandemic period.

The Korean results should therefore be read as both recovery and warning. Audiences are demonstrably willing to return in very large numbers, but the production and financing ecosystem still needs enough successful films beneath the outliers to turn a hot streak into a durable market.

India also reported double-digit improvement, although the available estimates use different measurements and time periods. Industry participants generally placed first-half box office growth between roughly 10% and 17%, with admissions and collections benefiting from a wider range of successful films than during the same period in 2025.

What appears more consistent than any single revenue total is the composition of that growth. Hindi, regional-language and Hollywood films all contributed, reducing the market’s reliance on a handful of giant releases.

“Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” “Border 2” and “Bhooth Bangla” were among the leading Hindi-language performers, while films from the Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam industries also generated substantial business. Hollywood releases including “Project Hail Mary” and “Obsession” added to the mix.

That broader range may be the healthiest sign in India’s numbers. A market powered by several languages, genres and audience segments is less vulnerable than one waiting for the next mega-budget Hindi film to perform emergency resuscitation.

Indian exhibitors are also expanding alternative programming, including concerts, sports broadcasts, fan events and re-releases. Those programs remain small relative to conventional film releases, but operators view them as a way to improve occupancy between tentpoles and make cinemas less dependent on the vagaries of the weekly release calendar.

China Becomes the Outlier
China remains the most significant exception to the improving international picture.

The market generated CNY ¥17.35 billion (USD $2.56 billion) during the first half of 2026, down 40.6% year over year. It was the country’s weakest non-pandemic first-half result since 2014 and only marginally above the lockdown-affected first six months of 2022.

The decline came despite several successful Chinese films and does not indicate a complete absence of audience demand. Rather, the market lacked the volume of large-scale releases needed to match the unusually strong first half of 2025. Only five films crossed CNY ¥1 billion (USD $147.6 million) during the period.

China did not disprove the broader content-supply argument. In some ways, it reinforced it.

The same dynamic that helped France, Hong Kong, South Korea and India recover worked against China when its domestic slate failed to produce enough major successes. Audiences did not necessarily abandon cinemas; they simply were not given enough reasons to visit them.

Hollywood’s position in China remains a separate concern. Even when the market rebounds, imported films can no longer assume they will recover alongside it. The question is no longer simply whether China’s box office will grow again, but who will benefit when it does.

A Better Recovery for Cinemas Than for Hollywood
Taken together, the results offer exhibitors a far more encouraging outlook than the one they faced a year ago.

The improvement spans mature European markets, Australia and several major Asian territories. It includes revenue growth, higher attendance, stronger cinema advertising and renewed demand for premium formats. Even Portugal increased box office revenue despite fewer admissions and a shrinking screen base.

This does not amount to a return to the old normal. Nor does it demonstrate that every structural problem facing exhibition has been solved. Release calendars can still thin out quickly, financing for local productions remains difficult in several territories and some gains are concentrated around a small number of unusually successful films.

But the first-half numbers do represent a meaningful shift. A year ago, the industry was still asking whether audiences would reliably return. In many markets, the more relevant question now is what they will return to see.

For Hollywood studios, the answer is less comforting than it once was.

American films drove much of the growth in the UK, Ireland and Australia and remained essential to France’s balanced recovery. In Hong Kong and South Korea, however, local films produced the biggest breakthroughs. India’s improvement was spread across several domestic-language industries as well as Hollywood.

The international theatrical recovery is therefore not distributing its rewards evenly. Cinemas may be getting healthier while Hollywood’s share of overseas admissions becomes more contested.

That is good news for exhibition, local producers and audiences seeking a more varied slate. It is more complicated news for studios accustomed to treating international recovery and Hollywood recovery as interchangeable concepts.

The second half of 2026 will test whether the momentum can hold. A substantial Hollywood slate—including “Moana,” “The Odyssey,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three”—will arrive alongside major local releases in territories around the world.

For cinemas, the first-half lesson is familiar but increasingly difficult to dismiss: give audiences a consistent range of films they want to see and they will continue to show up.

The more consequential question for Hollywood is whose films they are showing up for.