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Box office outside North America and China is back in dollars, not tickets. Who’s winning?

Takings are up an estimated 20% and level with 2017–19 in dollars, but cinemas sell far fewer tickets. Korea, Brazil and Saudi Arabia grew on attendance; India mostly on price.

By 10 min read
Spider-Man crouching on top of an armoured vehicle and pulling on two web lines in a still from Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), which had taken $2.50bn worldwide by the end of September, according to Gower Street Analytics. Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Cinemas outside North America and China are taking as much money as before the pandemic but selling far fewer tickets, and the official figures do not settle whether Hollywood or local films are winning. Gower Street Analytics, which tracks the global box office, puts takings in the markets beyond North America and China at $15.1bn for January to September, up 20% on 2025 and, at current exchange rates, level with its 2017–19 average. That is revenue, not attendance: worldwide, cinemas sold 71.5% as many tickets in 2025 as they did on average in 2017–19. Korea and Brazil grew on attendance as well as takings this year, India leaned on dearer tickets, and Saudi Arabia, the one market here selling more tickets than before the pandemic, saw its own films more than double their takings.

The recovery in three numbers

Back in dollars, not in tickets

  • $15.1bnTakings outside North America and China, January–September 2026: up 20% and level with the 2017–19 average at current exchange rates
  • 71.5%Tickets sold worldwide in 2025, as a share of the 2017–19 average
  • +189%Saudi Arabia’s 2025 tickets against 2019, the only market here above its pre-pandemic level

Sources: Gower Street Analytics; European Audiovisual Observatory’s Focus 2026, via KOFIC

Key facts

  • Outside North America and China: an estimated $15.1bn in January–September 2026, up 20% and level with the 2017–19 average at current exchange rates; North America $7.9bn, up 19%; China $4.4bn, down 29% (Gower Street Analytics)
  • South Korea, January–September: revenue up 35.9%, admissions up 28.8% to 96.89 million, or 58.7% of the 2017–19 level for those months (KOFIC; 2017–19 comparison via Sisa Week)
  • Brazil: 116.8 million tickets by 28 October, up 19.5% and already above 2025’s full-year 112.8 million, which was 36.5% below 2019 (Ancine)
  • India, July–September: industry takings up 23% to ₹4,443 crore ($464m); at PVR INOX, admissions up 4% and the average ticket up 14% (PVR INOX, from Ormax Media and company estimates)
  • Saudi Arabia, 2025: tickets up 7% to 18.8 million, nearly three times the 2019 level; Saudi films took SAR122.6m ($32.7m), more than double 2024 (Saudi Film Commission; KOFIC)

Where the money is coming from

North America grew almost as fast. On Gower Street’s September numbers, markets outside North America and China account for about 55% of the $27.3bn taken worldwide so far this year, up from about half at the same point of 2025, by our calculation, while China is down 29%.

Takings and tickets, market by market

The dollar comparison flatters the recovery. Gower Street measures box office in US dollars at current exchange rates, so dearer tickets, premium formats such as IMAX and 4DX, and currency moves all count as growth. Worldwide, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), summarising the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Focus 2026, puts 2025 revenue up 5.4% and admissions up 2.8%, so price did more of the work. Only Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Japan sold more tickets in 2025 than before the pandemic, KOFIC says.

Takings vs tickets

Takings rose faster than tickets in every market with like-for-like figures

Change on the previous year in takings and in tickets sold. Each market is compared over its own period.

India is not shown: industry takings rose 23% in July–September, but the only ticket count published for the quarter is PVR INOX’s (+4%), so the two are not like-for-like.

Sources: KOFIC; Ancine, compiled for RioMarket; Saudi Film Commission, via Argaam; European Audiovisual Observatory’s Focus 2026, via KOFIC

See the data
Takings rose faster than tickets in every market with like-for-like figures
MarketTakingsTickets
South Korea (Jan–Sep 2026)+35.9%+28.8%
Brazil (to 23 Sep 2026)+25.1%+19.2%
Saudi Arabia (2025)+9%+7%
Worldwide (2025)+5.4%+2.8%

The markets report on different periods, so each is compared with its own last year.

Market (period)Takings vs last yearTickets vs last yearTickets vs pre-pandemicPrice
South Korea (Jan–Sep 2026)+35.9%+28.8%58.7% of 2017–19Average ticket up about 5%
Brazil (2026 to date)+25.1% (to 23 Sep)+19.2% (to 23 Sep)2025 total 36.5% below 2019Average ticket up about 5%
India (Jul–Sep 2026)+23% (industry)+4% (PVR INOX only)2025 total 19.5% below 2019PVR INOX ticket up 14%
Saudi Arabia (2025)+9%+7%2025 total 189% above 2019Average ticket up 2%
Worldwide (2025)+5.4%+2.8%71.5% of 2017–19Revenue 81.8% of 2017–19

Sources: KOFIC; Ancine; PVR INOX, citing Ormax Media; Saudi Film Commission, via Argaam; KOFIC’s summary of Focus 2026. Korean and Brazilian price changes are our calculation.

On both measures, Saudi Arabia and Korea are the strongest recoveries. Saudi Arabia is the only one selling more tickets than before the pandemic, and its average ticket was 34.8% cheaper in riyals in 2025 than in 2019, KOFIC says. Korea added the most audience this year, but from the deepest hole: according to the Focus data in Ancine’s 2025 yearbook, it sold 53.2% fewer tickets in 2025 than in 2019. India is the clearest case of growth led by price. Its 2025 takings in dollars were 1.2% below 2019, while admissions were 19.5% lower and the average dollar ticket price 80.8% higher, the same yearbook shows. Brazil sits between the two: attendance is rising faster than prices, from a 2025 base well short of 2019.

Gower Street now expects $35.7bn for the full year, the best total since 2019, including about $19.7bn from the markets outside North America and China (our report).

Korea: a market that changes hands by the quarter

KOFIC’s third-quarter release shows how quickly the balance can tip. Admissions for January to September reached 96.89 million, up 28.8%, and revenue passed ₩1tn ($738m). Korean films took 73.4% of revenue in the first quarter and about 52% in the second, then 29.0% in the third, down 12.4 points on a year earlier. The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day accounted for 75.7% of foreign-film revenue in that quarter.

Korea, quarter by quarter

Korean films’ share of revenue fell from 73.4% to 29.0% in two quarters

Korean films’ share of box-office revenue in South Korea, 2026

Source: KOFIC (Q2: FilmBunch calculation from KOFIC figures)

See the data
Korean films’ share of revenue fell from 73.4% to 29.0% in two quarters
QuarterKorean films’ share of revenue
Q173.4%
Q2about 52%
Q329.0%

Attendance is rising almost as fast as revenue: by our calculation the average ticket was about 5% dearer than a year earlier, and about a quarter dearer than in 2017–19, with revenue at 73.2% of the pre-pandemic level against 58.7% for admissions, per KOFIC’s report via Sisa Week. Premium screens explain part of that: The Odyssey earned 29.1% of its ₩134.3bn ($99m) from special formats, ₩29bn ($21m) of it from IMAX.

Over nine months, though, local films are ahead of 2025. Korean titles took ₩491.3bn ($362m), up 44.6%, from 49.19 million admissions, up 38.9%, according to the KOFIC figures reported by Sisa Week. By our calculation that is 50.8% of admissions, against 47.1% in the same months of 2025, and about 49% of revenue, against about 46%. The loss of share is a third-quarter story, and an August one in particular, when the bigger Korean releases waited for the Chuseok holiday in September.

Poster for Hope: a man on a white horse gallops through a pine forest carrying another man

India: Hollywood grows by speaking Indian languages

PVR INOX’s results filing puts India’s July–September box office at ₹4,443 crore ($464m), up 23%, citing Ormax Media and company estimates. English-language films provided much of that rise: ₹1,024 crore ($107m), up 87%, or about 23% of the quarter. Hindi films, including Hindi-dubbed releases, and other Indian-language films each grew 12%.

Ticket sales did not keep pace. PVR INOX sold 46.3 million tickets in the quarter, up 4%, while its average ticket price rose 14% to ₹298 ($3.11) and occupancy rose to 30.4% from 28.7%, still below the 32.0% of its last pre-pandemic financial year. No industry-wide admissions count for the quarter has been published, but the chain’s figures suggest most of the 23% came from price and premium formats, which it says were in strong demand.

Hindi and other Indian-language films still took about 77% of the quarter, by our calculation. The investor update shows English rising to 19% of the April–September gross from 14%. The chain says dubbed versions provided about 36% of the gross for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which took ₹608 crore ($63m). Hollywood is gaining partly through local-language versions, as our quarterly report set out.

Brazil: growth without Brazilian films

Brazil is the clearest case of an imported recovery. Ancine figures cited by O Globo put admissions at 116.8 million by 28 October, up 19.5% and the best January–October total of the decade. That already exceeds the 112.8 million sold in the whole of 2025, but 2025 was itself 36.5% below 2019, when Brazil sold 177.7 million tickets, according to Ancine’s yearbook. Ancine data to 23 September, compiled for RioMarket, show takings up 25.1% against tickets up 19.2%, so higher prices added about 5%. Brazilian films are not sharing in the growth: they had 6.8% of tickets and 5.7% of revenue.

The local share has fallen despite the screen quota. In its notice on Normative Instruction 175, published in May, Ancine says Brazilian films had 15.7% of sessions in both 2024 and 2025, under the quota, but only 10.1% and 9.9% of admissions. In 2026 that share fell to 6.5%, the agency says: meeting the quota was not filling seats. The new rules, in force since 1 January, give extra weight to Brazilian sessions from 5pm, to a film’s second to fifth week and to films with major prizes from festivals Ancine recognises.

Customers queue at a cinema box office in a São Paulo shopping centre, under screens listing films

The counter-case: where local films gain

The Saudi Film Commission’s 2025 box office report shows 11 Saudi films taking SAR122.6m ($32.7m), against SAR56.8m ($15.1m) in 2024, about 13% of a SAR920.8m ($246m) market by our calculation. F1 was the biggest film, but three Saudi titles made the top six.

The growth came from attendance rather than price. Tickets rose 7% to 18.8 million while the average ticket rose 2% to SAR49 ($13), according to the commission’s figures as reported by Argaam. No 2026 figures are out yet.

An older man in a red and white shemagh sits on desert ground beside an old car, a smiling boy resting against him

Japan is the other exception: local films had 76% of admissions in 2025, and the Association of Japanese Animations puts the anime market at a record ¥4.45tn ($28.4bn), 57.1% of it earned overseas, as our Japan report set out.

The case for a Hollywood win is weaker than the summer charts suggest. A handful of event films, led by Spider-Man: Brand New Day, did much of the lifting in Korea and India. In KOFIC’s summary of 2025, citing France’s CNC, the US majors’ worldwide revenue of $17.7bn was still well below the more than $25bn a year they took in 2017–19, and local films’ share of 2025 admissions fell in Korea, India and Brazil.

Our finding: once tickets are counted alongside takings, neither side is winning outright, and only Saudi Arabia among these markets has its audience back. The strongest recoveries, in Saudi Arabia and Korea, came from more people going, and in both, local films grew faster than the market: Saudi films more than doubled, and Korean films took 50.8% of nine-month admissions, up from 47.1%. India’s growth leaned on price and premium screens, and English-language films took a larger share of it. Brazil added audiences, but almost all of them for imported films. Where Hollywood gained most, in Korea’s third quarter and in India, it did so through a handful of event films, many of them sold on premium screens.

What it means for filmmakers and sellers

Prioritise the growing markets, not China. Korea, Brazil and India all reported takings growth of about a fifth or more this year (India’s figure covers July–September), and Korea and Brazil added audiences too; China fell by 29%. A budget that leaned on Chinese revenue needs another anchor.

Budget for language versions in India. Dubbed versions provided about 36% of Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Indian gross; price dubbing into deals from the start.

Read Brazil as a studio market for now. Admissions are rising but the local share is falling. Ancine’s new weighting gives a festival prize measurable value with exhibitors.

Look at Saudi and Japanese partners. Saudi Arabia is adding audiences and its own films are growing fastest; Japanese anime earns most of its value abroad.

Dollar conversions use ECB reference rates for the last day of each period: 30 September 2026 for Korea (₩1,355.4 to $1) and India (₹95.83 to $1), 31 December 2025 for Japan (¥156.67 to $1). Saudi figures use the riyal’s fixed rate of SAR3.75 to $1. Dollar comparisons with 2019 from Ancine’s yearbook use the Focus report’s own rates.

Next milestone: Gower Street’s 2027 projection is due in December; KOFIC’s full-year report and Ancine’s year-end data follow early in 2027. They will show whether the local-share falls in Korea and Brazil hold, and whether ticket sales close any of the gap with takings.

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