Number of cinema screens in the U.S. & Canada from 2008 to 2021, by format

In 2021, there were about 43.65 thousand cinema screens in the United States and Canada, down from 44.11 thousand a year earlier – an annual decrease of one percent. Digital 3D movie screens added up to almost 14.71 thousand in 2021, accounting for little more than one-third of the total number of cinema screens in the so-called North American movie market.

What is digital cinema?

Digital cinema describes the use of digital technology to produce and project movies onto a screen, as opposed to the traditional analog technique of using 35mm film. Within the segment, 3D films are a recurring feature to attract more viewers. After peaking at 45 in 2016, the number of 3D movies released in the U.S. and Canada decreased year by year. Despite a 200 increase between 2020 and 2021, the nine 3D titles released in the latter year amounted to less than one third of the figure recorded in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Distribution of digital cinema screens worldwide

The global number of digital cinema screens has been growing steadily since the late 2000s, amounting to over 200 thousand in 2020. When it comes to digital 3D movie screens, however, the Asia Pacific has been the only region to report annual growth lately – even before the pandemic. That part of the world accounted for roughly two-thirds of all digital 3D cinema screens on the planet in 2021.