Shadow Cinema Box Office in Russia Drops 35% Year-on-Year

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In Russia, the total box office revenue from the "shadow cinema" (screenings without official rights holders in the country) amounted to 2.8 billion rubles in 2025, which is 35% lower than in 2024 when such screenings brought in 4.3 billion rubles, according to the industry publication Cinemaplex, as reported by Kommersant.

In the total revenue of Russian cinemas, the share of "shadow cinema" accounted for 5.6% - out of 8.3 million official screenings, 400,000 were "shadow" screenings. For comparison, in 2024, the share was 6.4%, and in 2023, it was 6.1%.

The share of viewers attending "shadow cinema" screenings fell by 2.8% over the year, from 8.2% to 5.4%. The number of viewers decreased by 40%, from 10.5 million to 6.3 million.

According to data from the Unified Federal Automated Information System of the Russian Film Foundation, the total box office revenue of the Russian cinema market in 2025 amounted to 50.7 billion rubles, which is 9.3% higher than the previous year. However, the number of tickets sold decreased by 7%, to 118.6 million. The revenue growth was only due to an increase in ticket prices. Thus, the average ticket price in 2025 was 427 rubles, compared to 364 rubles the previous year.