05/03/2025 - Last year's admissions were almost 10% higher than the year before, but the Polish film industry still worries about local titles' box office results

Young adult films have generated good results in the Polish box office. Mikołaj Piszczan's 100 Days to Finals, a coming-of-age film featuring a group of high-school seniors and casts real-life YouTubers and influencers, premiered in cinemas on 28 February and saw 342 000 admissions over the opening weekend. As for 3 March, another film revolving around teenagers and their school dramas, titled Screw Mickiewicz 2 and directed by Sara Bustamante-Drozdek, which opened on 24 January, has already gained 600 000 admissions. 

The popularity of young adult films – which are not animations made by big US studios - is a micro-trend which was already noticeable last year. The most popular film in the 2024 annual box office in Poland was Maciej Kawulski's Kleks Academy, based on cult classic novel and Krzysztof Gradowski's 1984 film Mr. Blot Academy. The film hauled almost 3 million admissions. The first runner-up, also dedicated to a younger audience, US animation title Inside Out 2, had 2.67 million admissions. The second runner-up was also a local title, a sixth sequel to Łukasz Jaworski's Christmas romantic comedy Letters to Santa 6 which sold 1.89 million tickets. These titles were followed by US titles Dune: Part Two (1.73 million admissions) and Deadpool & Wolverine (1.7 million admissions). Overall, the annual number of admissions was 37.9 millions, almost 10% higher than the year before which had reached 34.8 millions. This data is not complete, as one of the biggest distribution companies in the country, UIP, doesn’t report its distribution results. 

Growing box office numbers aren't making the Polish film industry optimistic, however. Arthouse Polish films underperformed last year, with the most popular title of this genre, Marcin Koszalka's White Courage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marcin Koszałka
film profile], amassing 273 000 admissions and reaching the 27th position in the annual box office. During industry events such as the Polish Producers Alliance’s Summit, held in December 2024, producers, distributors and cinema owners have discussed how to best attract larger audiences to Polish films. The main conclusions from these debates are that the key issues are a too large number of films released theatrically (over 330 titles in 2024), conventional promotion, and promotional focus on opening weekends, as well as the more subjective factor of the overall quality of the films. 

Box office is predicted to keep growing in 2025, but not at a satisfying pace. The most anticipated local titles are Good House by auteur Wojciech Smarzowski, Chopin! Chopin!, a biopic of the most famous Polish-French composer by Michał Kwieciński, heist comedy Vinci 2 by Juliusz Machulski, and In-Laws 3 by Jakub Michalczuk.