“There will be no more explosive audience growth”

Online Cinema Audience Grows by 30% in 2025

In Russia, the audience of online cinemas grew by 30% in 2025, to 75 million users, and the number of paid subscriptions to services increased by 33% over the same period, to 54 million. Moreover, nine online cinema services surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark. Today, 85% of the market is still accounted for by five players (Kinopoisk, Okko, Ivi, Wink, and Kion), according to analytics from the TelecomDaily portal.

Users themselves are also satisfied with online services (scores range from 4.26 to 4.3 points depending on the platform). At the same time, more than a third of Russians (36%–48% depending on the cinema) are willing to recommend the service to acquaintances.

According to the results of the third quarter of 2025, 52% of online cinema subscribers were residents of Russian cities, including localities with populations of up to 100,000 people (+1% relative to the fourth quarter of 2024), according to a survey by the ICMR portal. Thus, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as of the end of March last year, 60% of residents were subscribed to online cinemas (+3% over the quarter), and in other million-plus cities such as Novosibirsk, Kazan, and so on — 58% of citizens (+4% over the quarter), the statement said.

“The high share of online cinema subscribers in large cities is solely related to people's financial situation. If the amount asked for a subscription becomes insignificant for a person, then they are willing to pay for convenience when accessing content," Artem Geller, an IT expert, lead developer of the Kremlin.ru website, consultant to the Presidential Administration of Russia, and chairman of the commission at the Institute for Internet Development, told the publication.

Regarding the revenue of online services, according to TelecomDaily's estimate published in an Alfa Bank review, the total revenue of online cinemas in 2024 amounted to 121.3 billion rubles (+44% year-on-year). Meanwhile, in the first half of 2025, platform revenue amounted to 78.2 billion rubles (+40% year-on-year), according to researchers at TMT Consulting. According to analysts, “internet cinema” revenues grew due to increased subscription prices, the development of series production and sports content, and a revision of cooperation strategies within partnership programs.

You can watch movies anytime on online platforms, but cinemas provide a psychological effect

The outflow of viewers from movie theaters to online platforms began during the pandemic in 2020, not only in Russia but worldwide. The main reasons for the shift were temporary convenience and financial benefit, film critic David Shneiderov told Realnoe Vremya.

“On an online platform, you can watch a movie anytime, pause the film, which you cannot do sitting in a cinema. Additionally, there is a financial benefit. A subscription costs, say, 390 rubles a month, while a movie ticket is sometimes significantly more expensive. Moreover, prices for some premieres are simply colossal. If you go to the cinema with the whole family, the price can be multiplied by four. These factors certainly win viewers over," the film critic told the publication.

He added that a subscription is cheaper than a movie ticket due to cinemas' expenses on rent, equipment upgrades, employee salaries, and other associated costs.

Furthermore, Shneiderov noted the benefit for “film moguls” themselves in producing content for platforms.

“In a cinema, a film typically runs no longer than three hours. In turn, the shortest series is over four hours long. Accordingly, in the second case, the director has more scope to develop all storylines, bring everything to a conclusion, and so on," the expert added.

The active shift of viewers to online platforms will lead to the closure of cinemas, which is already gradually happening, for example, in Moscow, Shneiderov noted, calling this trend a sad one.

“Previously, going to the cinema was a whole event, a separate family or group activity, but at home we sometimes watch premieres alone. Furthermore, the cinema always provided a psychological effect of presence while watching a film: in the theater you could laugh heartily, discuss the film with family, whereas at home, a person watching the same product on TV might not even smile," the speaker pointed out.

“Increase in online cinema audience will affect film budgets”

As Shneiderov noted, online platforms are already releasing higher quality products than those made for the big screen, and the quality of premieres on services will only increase.

“It is obvious that the increase in the online cinema audience will also affect the budgets of films produced for these platforms, because the more subscribers a service has, the more money and opportunities there are to increase production budgets. A recent example: when Game of Thrones first launched, the budget for the first episode was $1 million, while the budget for the last increased to $10 million," the film critic told the publication.

“There will be no more explosive growth of online cinema audience”

Streaming services are actively capturing space. It is worth recalling that at the end of January, Netflix agreed with Warner Bros. Discovery to buy part of the business, paying for the deal entirely in cash (there was also previous talk of payment with shares — ed. note). Adjustments to the payment methods were made to expedite its completion and avoid disputes with Paramount Skydance (PS), which had previously offered more money for the deal and is trying to contest the agreements.

According to experts, Netflix's acquisition of WBD's film studios and catalog will significantly strengthen the service's position in the media market. Industry professionals themselves are also concerned about the topic of film distribution in cinemas. It is worth recalling that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos promised to maintain a 45-day theatrical release window, but American director Christopher Nolan has cast doubt on the executive's words.

“There are very serious concerns about how all this will happen... This is a very worrying time for the industry. Losing a major studio is a huge blow. We are interested in learning more about how they plan to manage these projects. The theatrical release window becomes a kind of easily understood symbol of whether Warner Bros will be managed as a film distribution company or whether the studio will be integrated into a streaming service," he told Variety journalists.

“People are going to offline cinemas less and less for a multitude of reasons”

In turn, Geller believes that explosive growth in the online cinema audience should not be expected in 2026.

“The trend is not changing; people are going to offline cinemas less and less for a multitude of reasons. Ecosystems, however, are developing and becoming more attractive to viewers due to ease of use and various promotions. There probably won't be explosive growth like in 2025 anymore, but the online cinema audience could still grow by 6–10%," the IT expert predicted.