It was probably the biggest surprise of the year: Home Sweet Home by auteur Wojciech Smarzowski, a movie about domestic abuse, racked up 2.377 million admissions in 2025 after enjoying a great opening weekend and first week on release. In drastic, unrelenting fashion, the film tells the story of a shy girl who marries a charming local politician and has her dreams torn apart at his hands. The feature was deemed much-needed in a society that silences victims and where most cases of domestic violence remain unreported, but there was little expectation when it came to its box-office performance.

The situation does have a precedent, though: Smarzowski’s Clergy [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Wojciech Smarzowski
scheda film], about sexual abuse and other crimes and misdemeanours committed by the Catholic Church, recorded over five million ticket sales in 2018. However, after the pandemic, the audience either preferred to stay at home or chose content that would lighten up their evenings.

All of the other movies that earned a spot in the box-office top ten for 2025 are either feature-length animations from big studios, young-adult films or otherwise entertaining flicks. The most popular title of the year was A Minecraft Movie, with 2.85 million admissions, while Zootopia 2 came third with 2.26 million. Three other Polish flicks ended up on the overall list: In-Laws 3 by Jakub Michalczuk, a new instalment in the family comedy saga about two couples who have nothing in common apart from their kids being in love with each other; Kleks Academy 2 by Maciej Kawulski, a young-adult adventure film that notched up sales of 1.163 million tickets; and Graduation Heist by Mikołaj Piszczan, about secondary-school seniors waiting for their final exam, starring popular YouTubers. The latter recorded 1.01 million admissions.

All of these films occupied the consecutive top spots on the top-ten box-office chart for local features. Places five to seven were also occupied by sequels: Vinci 2 by veteran director Juliusz Machulski (675,000 admissions), Screw Mickiewicz 2 by Sara Bustamante (660,000 admissions) and Believe in Santa 2 by Anna Wieczur-Bluszcz (571,000 admissions). Dalej Jazda by Mariusz Kuczewski (510,000 admissions), The Dog Who Travelled by Train 2 by Magdalena Nieć (472,000 admissions), Chopin: A Sonata in Paris by Michał Kwieciński (451,000 admissions) and The Altar Boys [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Piotr Domalewski
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As for 2026, some of the releases that may well land in the annual top ten at the box office have already been announced: The Great Warsaw Race by Bartłomiej Ignaciuk, Too Old for Fairy Tales 3 by Kristoffer Rus and an eagerly awaited adaptation of Bolesław Prus’s 1890 novel The Doll, directed by Maciej Kawalski. Netflix is producing a TV series based on the same novel (directed by Paweł Maślona), which is also scheduled to be released in 2026.

There are also further arthouse titles expected to debut this year, including Małgorzata Szumowska and Maciej Englert’s The Idiots (see the news), Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s Hot Spot, Aga Woszczńska’s Black Water (see the news), Jan Holoubek’s Wild, Wild East, Karolina Bielawska’s Dzięcioł and Violetta, Jagoda Szelc’s Voracious and Łukasz Ronduda’s Tell Me What You Feel, which is due to world-premiere at IFFR later this month.