Julia Stoll
Research expert covering TV and video media
Film industry in the United States and Canada - statistics & facts
The United States and Canada 鈥 collectively known as the North American movie market 鈥 are home to one of the most influential film-producing industries worldwide. In terms of box office revenue, the region garnered 8.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, still far ahead of other economies across Asia and Europe like China and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, China was the absolute global leader in聽the number of movie tickets sold that year, with India and the U.S. ranking second and third, respectively. By another metric, however, North American cinema remains at the top of the game. As of November 2025, all of the most expensive film productions in history were either made by or in collaboration with studios in the U.S. This includes the most recent iterations of successful franchises such as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars.
Moviemaking in North America: quantity and qualities
The number of movies released in the U.S. and Canada still has a long way to go to catch up with its pre-pandemic standards. In 2024, theaters across the two countries premiered 569 titles, compared to the 873 feature films launched in 2018. A look into cumulative figures throughout the past few decades indicates patterns within the industry. Around one in three of the 17,700 movies released in the North American market between 1995 and 2025 were dramas. Documentaries and comedies followed, each genre accounting for 15 percent of the feature film releases in that period. Meanwhile, most of the box office revenue聽came from PG-13-rated productions. Altogether, films that, according to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), contain "[s]ome material [that] may be inappropriate for children under 13" grossed nearly 130 billion U.S. dollars domestically during the past 30 years.
Diversity on and off screen
While many efforts were made towards diversifying the American cinema workforce the past few years, observers noticed that diversity is currently facing a pushback. For instance, the share of female movie directors in Hollywood movies stood at not even 16 percent in 2024, down from the peak in 2021 at 22 percent. A similar relative evolution occurred in terms of the ethnic distribution of film directors. Non-white actors continued to represent under 30 percent of leads, indicating a stagnation in diversity progress. The demographics of those creating the stories for cinema are also changing. About 13 percent of movie writers in the U.S. in 2024 were not white, about half than the previous year.聽
Despite its strong position in the filmmaking industry and the success of several box office hits, the North American market has yet to fully recover in terms of box office revenue and audience figures. Furthermore, data on Hollywood's workforce shows that women and minority groups continue to be distinctly underrepresented in the North American movie industry.
