Lights, Camera, Records: Global Film Production Hits a Record - Global box office revenues still trailing

Feature film production hit a record high, reflecting the expanding geography of global creative capacity, even as global box office revenues remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Feature films are among the most visible products of a country’s creative economy. Film is a knowledge- and skill-intensive industry: it sustains employment across writing, production, performance and post-production, while generating intellectual property that can be monetized through licensing, franchises and distribution.

A geographically broadening production base therefore signals that the capacity to create, finance and distribute original content is spreading. This is why the Global Innovation Index (GII) tracks national feature-film output as an indicator of creative capacity.

As the 79th Festival de Cannes rolls out its red carpet on the Croisette from 12 to 23 May, new data from WIPO and Omdia show that global cinema production is in top shape. In 2024, the world produced just over 9,600 feature films - a new all-time high, building on a record high in 2023.

At the same time, global box office revenues have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels – 2025’s global revenue of USD 32.8 billion remains below the 2019 peak. Our headline captures a split in the movie industry: the making of films has fully recovered, outside of the US, but the selling of tickets hasn't in the same way.

These insights are based on new data from WIPO and Omdia featured in the upcoming Global Innovation Index 2026, drawn from 104 reporting economies and updated through 2024 - the latest year for which complete global film production data are available.

The data reveal two distinct dynamics. First, the number of feature films produced globally has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, reaching 9,628 films in 2024 - a new all-time high, 2.4% above the 2023 record, 4.4% above the pre-pandemic peak of 9,223 films set in 2019, and more than double the 2004 output (see Figures 1 and 2). After collapsing 40% to 5,490 films in 2020, production has not only recovered but extended its long-running upward trend albeit at a slower rate by 2024.

Second, box office revenues have followed a slower and bumpier path. After rebounding from the 2020 low to USD 33.2 billion in 2023, global box office slipped by about 8% to USD 30.6 billion in 2024, and 2025 figures (USD 32.8 billion) point to only a marginal recovery - still roughly 22% below the 2019 peak of USD 42.0 billion (see Figure 1). The direction of travel: modest growth that brings the theatrical market a little closer to recovery but still leaves it well short of pre-pandemic levels.

Why have the two measures diverged? In part because they capture different things. Film production counts the number of titles a country completes - an activity made cheaper and more accessible by digital tools and sustained by streaming platforms commissioning ever more content worldwide.

Box office, by contrast, measures how many of those films draw paying audiences into cinemas, a narrower and more contested outcome. Several forces weighed on theatrical revenue in 2024 and 2025 specifically: a steep box office contraction of nearly 24% in China in 2024; leaner Hollywood release slates in the wake of the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes; and the continued shift of viewing toward streaming at home.

The gap is also a price-and-volume story: industry analysts observe that box office revenue growth is increasingly carried by higher ticket prices and premium-format screenings rather than by rising attendance, with admissions still well below pre-pandemic levels. In short, the world is making more films than ever, but the theatrical market that monetizes them is recovering more slowly and on a different basis than before.

Streaming – although not covered by our data also plays a role in this divergence (see Box 1).

Figure 1: The State of Global Cinema, 2015–2025

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

Figure 2: Annual number of national feature films produced globally, 2000–2024

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

India, Japan, China and the US lead global cinema production, while Bhutan, Mauritius, Estonia lead relative to their population size

In absolute terms, India leads global cinema production, with Bollywood and the Tamil-, Telugu- and Malayalam-language industries producing 2,605 films - over a quarter of the global total (see Table 1 and Figure 3).

• Japan follows with 685 films (+9 on 2023), powered by a vibrant anime sector and resilient domestic theatrical demand.
• China produced 612 films, a decline of 180 (-23%) after the exceptional 2023 surge.
• The United States produced 544 films (+34), while Italy rounds out the top five with 350 films, sustaining the gains made in 2023 on the back of strong domestic theatrical hits.

French cinema production, the Cannes host, held firm at 231 films in 2024, near its long-run average.

The scaled data is striking. Measured by films produced per million working-age people (ages 15–69), it is Bhutan that leads the world, with 28.6 films per million - ahead of Mauritius (27.7), Estonia (24.5), Latvia (21.6) and Iceland (21.3). That a Himalayan economy of under a million people tops the global per-capita ranking is a powerful illustration of the point: relative to the size of its workforce, Bhutan is among the most prolific film-producing nations on earth. The top five on this measure are small Asian, African and Northern European states, none of which appears anywhere near the absolute top ranks. This is a reminder that small countries can build film cultures that punch well above their weight, built on different economics of production and distribution but nonetheless important.

Table 1: Top economies for feature film production, absolute (left) and scaled by working-age population (right), 2024

Source: WIPO and Omdia, Global Innovation Index 2026. Per-capita rankings use working-age population (ages 15–69). Detailed scaled values will be published in the GII 2026 country profiles.

Figure 3: Feature films produced by top economy, 2000–2024

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

Biggest movers: Türkiye, Argentina and Iran add the most films

Year-on-year growth of film production was again concentrated in middle-income economies (see Figure 4).

Türkiye added the most films in absolute terms, climbing from 147 films in 2023 to 223 in 2024 (+76, +52%). This is the latest step in a multi-year build-out - Turkish output has roughly doubled since 2014 (112 films) - supported by a thriving domestic theatrical sector and growing international demand for Turkish content from streaming platforms.

Argentina (+63) and Iran (+60) follow, with the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brazil and Ukraine all posting substantial gains. Iran produced 174 feature films in 2024, up 60 on 2023 (+53%) - the third-largest absolute gain of any country in the world. Brazilian production grew from 161 to 197 films in 2024 (+22%), continuing a multi-year recovery. At Cannes 2025, Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent took both Best Director and Best Actor (for Wagner Moura) - a symbolic moment for Latin American cinema and a marker that production scale and creative recognition are moving in tandem. Ukraine's increase from 16 to 50 films is particularly notable, on the back of a new cultural fund and international support for Ukrainian film production organized by the French film agency, CNC.

Figure 4: Biggest year-on-year gainers in feature film production, 2023–2024

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

Latin America's broad-based resurgence

Beyond Brazil, the wider Latin American region shows a broad-based production recovery. As noted above, Argentina rose to 235 films, its best year in over a decade, and Mexico produced 240 films, among the world’s larger producers. Colombia also expanded its output (79 films, +7), while Uruguay and Peru gained ground. Notably, Ecuador and Panama appear in the GII dataset for the first time, signalling broader regional reporting coverage in the Omdia and GII databases thanks to closer collaboration with domestic film boards and cultural ministries.

Figure 5: Latin American film production, 2010–2024

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

New entrants: Africa's reporting universe expands

Uganda enters the dataset for the first time with 63 films, among the highest-reporting African economies in the dataset. This addition reflects an expansion of measurement coverage rather than an overnight production boom, but it also points to the rapid maturation of regional film ecosystems, particularly in East Africa. Nigeria reports 50 films and Malawi 44, with Egypt and Kenya following.

Africa’s true film production volume is almost certainly larger than what national-level reporting captures, and this remains an active area for methodological refinement.

Figure 6: Top African film production in 2024

Source: Authors based on Omdia Film Production Database and WIPO Global Innovation Index

Outlook: a production boom meets a slower theatrical recovery

Production has hit a new all-time high, but theatrical revenue remains well below 2019. The question is no longer whether global cinema has recovered from the pandemic, but what kind of recovery this is. Seven trends bear watching:

1. Animation as a growth engine. Animated features were among the strongest performers in 2024 and 2025, with Asian studios increasingly prominent. Asia now accounts for over 40% of the global box office, and four Asian films made the Global Top 20 for the first time in 2025.
2. Middle-income economies driving expansion. Nine of the 20 largest producers in 2024 are middle-income economies. Türkiye, Argentina, Iran, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico have become structural pillars of global production, supported by domestic theatrical demand and by international streamers commissioning local-language content. The rise of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) has been a key driver: streamers fund local production and also distribute it globally, growing international demand for content from smaller film industries. Netflix and other streaming services have driven foreign and local content from diverse small and large cinema nations into millions of households, for example, creating a new form of demand.
3. An interesting point also is that the major global streamers usually co-produce with or commission from local producers. Many of the most-watched "Netflix originals" (Money Heist, Squid Game, Narcos) are in fact local productions counted in the national output of Spain, the Republic of Korea and Colombia. In that sense, national feature-film counts and country-level streaming penetration may indeed be seen as complementary indicators of creative capacity
4. Falling barriers to entry, and the AI question. Cheaper digital cameras, editing and visual-effects software, and online distribution have lowered the cost of making a film, helping new producing countries onto the map. AI is the next and more contested step. China has moved fastest in applying it to long-form production, reportedly compressing timelines from around five years to one. These tools could lower costs further and widen access, particularly for smaller countries.
5. Festivals as launchpads, not endpoints. As Cannes 2026 opens with 22 films in competition, the data point to festival recognition increasingly reaching emerging markets, with creative recognition and production scale developing in tandem.
6. The theatrical recovery will look different from the last one. Production keeps climbing because digital tools have lowered costs and streamers are commissioning more titles than ever. Box office is recovering on a new basis: premium formats and event cinema are drawing audiences back, IMAX reported a record global box office in 2025 and expects another in 2026, slates for 2026 and 2027 look strong, and China rebounded on major animated and franchise titles.
7. Gen Z is embracing cinema. Despite worries about attention spans, Gen Z is becoming the generation that engages most with cinema. In the US, moviegoers aged 24 and under rose from 33% of the audience in 2019 to 40% in 2025. The share of Gen Z visiting cinemas at least six times a year climbed from 33% to 41%, and average annual visits rose from 4.9 to 6.1. As digital natives, their phones are part of the experience before and after the film, but not during. They watch related content online and talk about films on sites like Letterboxd.
8. The swing factor is the streamers themselves, which have moved from the margins of prestige cinema to its centre. Cannes barred films without a French theatrical release from competition in 2018, yet by 2021 Apple's CODA became the first streaming title to win Best Picture, and Apple's F1 along with Netflix's Frankenstein all featured prominently at the 2026 Oscars. Amazon has built a theatrical pipeline through its MGM acquisition, releasing Challengers (2024) into cinemas first. Netflix collected three Oscars for Frankenstein in 2026 and has begun widening its cinema runs.

Forecasters expect global box office to keep edging upward, carried more by higher ticket prices and premium experiences than by a full return to pre-pandemic attendance. Production looks set to keep rising too, though more slowly than in recent years, as streamers commission ever more content worldwide.

The clearest lesson is that cinema and streaming increasingly operate as a single pipeline rather than as rivals. One Battle After Another, an original non-franchise film led by Leonardo DiCaprio, drew audiences to premium-format screens worldwide, won six Academy Awards, and then reached a large second audience on streaming.

For the Global Innovation Index, this is why the national feature-film count remains a meaningful indicator of creative capacity - it captures the breadth of a country’s storytelling output even in years when the theatrical market is still finding its footing.

Background

The Global Innovation Index includes a pillar on creative outputs, with three sub-pillars: Intangible assets, Creative goods and services, and Online creativity. The national feature films indicator sits within the Creative goods and services sub-pillar. This data is made available thanks to a long-running collaboration between Omdia and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Omdia is a technology research and advisory group, based in over 25 research locations and covering more than 200 markets with databases in the film, TV and media sectors. For more, visit the GII webpage, Omdia website or Festival de Cannes website.

The next update to this dataset, covering production through 2025, will be published in the Global Innovation Index 2026, due to launch on September 29, 2026.

Previous blog editions:

• Global Film Production Hits Historic High, Surpassing Pre-Pandemic Levels. GII Innovation Insights Series, April 2025. Geneva: WIPO.
• Resurgence of Global Cinema: 2022 and 2023 Witness Forceful Comeback but Still Shy of Pre-Pandemic Norms. GII Innovation Insights Series, March 2024. Geneva: WIPO.