Maciej Kawalski's "Lalka" draws more than two million viewers in three weeks

The new cinema adaptation of Bolesław Prus's novel has passed the threshold of two million viewers in Polish cinemas. The information was provided by the distributor, Kino Świat, and repeated by Filmweb, TVN24 and "Rzeczpospolita", among others.

How attendance grew

The film was released in Polish cinemas on 30 September 2026. After the first five days, more than 620,000 viewers had seen it, and a million tickets were sold after about a week and a half. At the end of the second week, the distributor reported around 1.41 million viewers. Two million was reached after three weeks of screenings.

The leading roles are played by Marcin Dorociński, Kamila Urzędowska and Marek Kondrat. The screenplay was written by Maciej Kawalski and Piotr Sobociński Jr. The co-producers include TVN Warner Bros. Discovery and Wytwórnia Filmów Fabularnych in Wrocław.

Schools and arthouse cinemas

According to "Rzeczpospolita", at weekends the film is watched mainly by individual viewers, while on weekdays many screenings are filled by schools, because the novel is a set school text. The Cinema City chain has opened bookings for schools for screenings with video introductions. Meanwhile, Wirtualna Polska, citing data from Kinometrics, notes that the film is doing well both in multiplexes and in arthouse cinemas.

When will it be on streaming?

The producer says that "Lalka" will not appear on any streaming platform in the coming months. TVN24 notes that the final result may be considerably higher than the current one.

Background: two "Lalkas"

The cinema release came at a time when there was also a lot of talk in Poland about the series adaptation of this novel, directed by Paweł Maślona and produced by Netflix. The media described this as the "war of the two Lalkas", and the cinema film was, according to commentators, expected to benefit from interest in the novel.

What this means for you

The sources give no information about screenings of "Lalka" in cinemas in the United Kingdom or about a release date on streaming platforms. The producer says the film will not be available on streaming in the coming months. People in the UK who are interested in seeing it should check the programmes of Polish community cinemas and announcements from the distributor.