"Lalka" draws over 2.5 million viewers and dominates October in Polish cinemas

"Lalka" ("The Doll"), an adaptation of Bolesław Prus's novel, dominated Polish cinemas in October 2026. According to Filmweb, the film passed one million viewers in the first half of the month, becoming the first Polish title to do so this year.

Record numbers

Filmweb's figures show that "Lalka" is the first Polish film since "Akademia Pana Kleksa" to sell more than 2.5 million tickets. The site says the 3 million mark is still within reach. It may already be the most popular release of 2026. The previous leader was "Spider-Man: Brand New Day", seen by probably just over 2.6 million people.

The film opened on a Wednesday at the start of October and went straight to number one in the weekend chart. It stayed there for almost four weeks, until Halloween. The opening weekend drew 387,000 viewers, the second-best opening of the year and the third-best among Polish productions this decade. More than 620,000 tickets were sold in the first five days. It reached a million viewers on its tenth day in cinemas and two million a little under two weeks before the article was published.

Compared with other Polish hits

Filmweb compares the result with other Polish hits of recent years:

• "Katyń" – 2.77 million viewers,
• "Pitbull. Niebezpieczne kobiety" – 2.88 million,
• "Akademia Pana Kleksa" – 2.93 million,
• "Listy do M. 2" – 2.97 million.

"Lalka" could also overtake "Listy do M. 3", which drew just over 3 million viewers. Wojciech Smarzowski's "Kler", with almost 5.2 million viewers in 2018, will remain out of reach.

Other October releases

Apart from "Lalka", only two other notable Polish films came out in October. The sci-fi melodrama "Czas, który nie nadszedł" passed 50,000 tickets but is unlikely to reach 100,000. The comedy "Jak żyć, żeby nie zwariować" is doing better: nearly 70,000 people saw it on its opening weekend. By the end of the month it may have drawn nearly 125,000 viewers.

Cinemas benefited from "Święto Kina" (Cinema Festival) on the fourth weekend of October, with promotional prices on 24 and 25 October. Among new releases, "Inna mamusia" ("Coraline"-style horror title in Polish distribution) did best: more than 100,000 viewers saw the horror on its opening weekend, and the distributor says over 200,000 tickets have now been sold. That figure also includes the Halloween weekend and film marathons. "Clayface" drew 65,000 viewers on the last weekend of October. Counting preview screenings plus Wednesday and Thursday, it had sold more than 100,000 tickets.

"Verity. Coraz większy mrok" and "Primetime" were among other titles that passed 100,000 viewers.