Documentaries made up 19% of the films on commercial release in cinemas between 2016 and 2025 but sold just 0.6% of the tickets, according to the first report the European Audiovisual Observatory has devoted to the form. The study, published on Thursday 12 November as the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) opens, counts 21.7 million documentary admissions in 2025 across the 50 markets it covers.
Its sharper finding is about who owns that audience. Worldwide, documentary attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, but European films now sell more than half of all documentary tickets. In European cinemas they took about 87% of documentary admissions in 2025, the highest share the Observatory has recorded for any European film category, against 33% for European fiction.
Key facts
- Coverage: theatrical data from 50 markets (35 European), about 72% of global admissions in 2025, with no data for India; VOD catalogues in 31 European countries; SVOD viewing in nine EU countries
- Supply: about 1,341 documentaries produced a year in 2022–2025, up 9% on 2016–2019; only 47% get a commercial release, against 75% of live-action films
- Audience: 21.7 million documentary admissions in 2025; the report gives a 37% fall on the pre-pandemic average, which matches 2022–2025 as a whole; 2025 alone was about 29% down (FilmBunch calculation)
- Europe: 71% of documentaries on release worldwide and more than half of documentary admissions since 2022; European fiction takes 9% of all admissions
- Cost: an average European documentary budget of €0.5m (median €0.4m) among films released in 2023, against €3.2m for live-action fiction
How far audiences have fallen
The Observatory’s summary says documentary admissions fell to 22 million in 2025, “down by 37% compared to the pre-pandemic average”. Its own chart points to a narrower gap for that year. Admissions ran at 22.5 million in 2016, 30.0 million in 2017, 43.5 million in 2018 and 26.6 million in 2019, an average of 30.7 million. The 2025 total of 21.7 million is about 29% below that. A 37% fall fits the average for 2022–2025, about 19.4 million a year, which is also the source of the report’s line about “11 million fewer tickets”. These are FilmBunch calculations from the report’s chart.
That baseline is itself lifted by one film. The Chinese documentary Amazing China sold 15 million tickets in 2018, a year the report flags as exceptional. Without those tickets, the 2016–2019 average drops to about 26.9 million and the 2025 shortfall to roughly 19%.
European documentaries have held up better. The summary puts their worldwide admissions at 10 million, against a pre-pandemic average of 12 million, a fall of 17%; the chart for 2025 alone shows 13%. Either way, the recovery is far stronger than for European fiction, which the same chart shows 42% down. Within Europe, documentary admissions in 2025 were only 9% below the pre-pandemic average, which the Observatory describes as close to full recovery.
A crowded, domestic market
Most documentaries never reach a paying audience at any scale. Fewer than half of those produced get a commercial release, which the Observatory defines as at least 1,000 admissions, and more than 90% of those released sell fewer than 100,000 tickets, a higher share than in fiction. European documentaries open in three markets on average, against four for fiction, and 62% of their admissions come from their home country. They are also the type of film that relies least on co-production: 18% were international co-productions in 2016–2025, against 25% of live-action films and 36% of animation. French documentaries sell the most tickets, more than 3 million a year on average, ahead of those from the UK, Germany and Italy.
Streaming tells a related story. In the nine EU markets where the Observatory measured viewing on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and HBO Max, European documentaries took 40% of documentary viewing time in 2024–2025, against 22% for European fiction, with British titles accounting for more than half of that. Crime and disaster subjects dominate on the platforms. In cinemas, audiences worldwide favour political documentaries, but nature subjects lead among European titles.
The 2026 outliers
The report stops at 2025, before this year’s exceptions. In Italy, NAZA passed 1.5 million admissions, and the A24 documentary You Can See Everything has grossed around $80m worldwide, Screen reported. Italy’s 2025 was already its best documentary year since Cinetel’s records began in 1995, with 1.55 million admissions and €11.68m from 419 new releases, BoxOfficeBiz reported. Edmery, the report’s author, presents the findings at an IDFA industry talk on Monday 16 November.
Our reading
The study gives documentary its first common yardstick across markets, and its most useful finding concerns ownership rather than decline. In fiction, European films fight for a third of their home market; in documentary they hold almost nine-tenths of it. That makes European producers, public funds and broadcasters, rather than US studios, the main backers of the form’s theatrical life.
The headline decline needs care. Comparing a four-year average with a pre-pandemic baseline inflated by one Chinese hit makes the slump look deeper than 2025 alone supports. The more durable problem is supply: output is up 9% while a typical title still sells fewer than 100,000 tickets in three markets. The 2026 results for NAZA and You Can See Everything will show whether a few breakouts can move those averages. Much of the form’s audience also sits on television and streaming, outside these ticket counts, as the British broadcasters’ haul at this month’s Grierson Awards shows. More of our documentary coverage is collected here.
Sources
- European Audiovisual Observatory, Documentaries in cinema and on VOD: insights into production and distribution trends 2016–2025, by Nicolas Edmery (report, November 2026)
- European Audiovisual Observatory, European works account for a high share of documentary consumption, whether in cinemas or in SVOD (press release, 12 November 2026)
- IDFA, Industry Talk: Direct-to-community distribution? (programme page; Monday 16 November, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam)
- Screen, How IDFA’s industry programme aims to help doc distributors find and target an audience (11 November 2026)
- BoxOfficeBiz, Documentari, l’Europa traina il mercato (12 November 2026; Cinetel figures for Italy)