Swiss cinema admissions hit by lack of US blockbusters

Lack of US blockbusters led to falling cinema admissions in 2025 Keystone-SDA

Swiss and Liechtenstein cinemas recorded 9.85 million admissions in 2025, around 7.5% fewer than in the previous year.

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The Swiss production Heldin made it into the top ten most successful films.

With the exception of the coronavirus years, admission figures are the lowest since 2016, according to provisional figures published on Friday by Pro Cinema, the Swiss Association for Cinema and Film Distribution.

In 2016, cinemas registered 13.7 million admissions. The 9.85 million admissions in 2025 generated box office revenue of around CHF161 million.

The decline is attributed to the thinning out of United States mainstream films. Fewer of these blockbusters were released in cinemas, mainly due to the Hollywood strikes.

Just how important these are for the statistics can be seen in the film hit parade, where Avatar: Fire an Ash, for example, was already able to take a top position with around 314,000 admissions in the short period from December 17 to the end of the year.

Sharp decline

In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the decline in cinema admissions of 15.6% was significantly greater than in German-speaking Switzerland, where a fall of 3.1% was recorded. The Italian-speaking part of Switzerland was in between with a drop of 10.7%.

In French-speaking Switzerland, the lack of popular French-language films had a negative impact. In German-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, German-language films such as Heldin, Hallo Betty and Das Kanu des Manitu generated good admission figures.

In the major cities of German-speaking Switzerland, the cinema balance was positive with a slight increase of 0.5%. The number of cinema screens remained stable.

According to the press release, Swiss film had a good year. With almost 985,000 admissions and a market share of 9.2%, it was 2.1% more successful than in the previous year. The top film was Heldin with 204,700 admissions, putting it in 9th place in the annual rankings.

According to the statistics, the overall list was topped by Lilo & Stich (Live Action) with 349,600 admissions, followed by Zootopia 2 with 347,800 and Avatar: Fire and Ash with 314,000 admissions.

Adapted from German by AI/mga

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