"Lalka" passes 2 million tickets, becoming Poland's most-watched homegrown film of 2026

Box office milestone

• Maciej Kawalski's "Lalka" sold 2 million cinema tickets in Poland in its first three weeks.
• It is the only Polish film of 2026 to reach 2 million tickets; the previous leader, "Piep*zyć Mickiewicza 3", drew 867,935 viewers.
• The producer says the film will not appear on streaming platforms in the coming months.
• Two new adaptations of Prus's novel, by Kawalski and Paweł Maślona, opened in September.

Polish cinemas sold 2 million tickets for "Lalka" ("The Doll") in the first three weeks after its release, the distributor Kino Świat said (Wokulski rozbił bank. "Lalka" największym polskim hitem roku – Gazeta) ("Lalka". Takiego wyniku nie osiągnął w tym roku żaden inny polski film – filmweb.pl). The film led the Polish box office for a third straight week (Film "Lalka" idzie po rekord. Już ponad dwa miliony widzów - TVN24 – tvn24.pl). According to Kino Świat, no Polish production has posted a better result since the debut of Wojciech Smarzowski's "Dom dobry". TVN24 counts the result among the strongest for a domestic film since the COVID-19 pandemic and expects the final total to be considerably higher.

How it compares

Before "Lalka" opened, the most-watched Polish film of 2026 was "Piep*zyć Mickiewicza 3," directed by Sara Bustamante-Drozdek, which had drawn a total of 867,935 viewers, according to TVN24. Admissions for the two films:

• "Lalka" (Maciej Kawalski): 2,000,000 tickets after three weeks
• "Piep*zyć Mickiewicza 3" (Sara Bustamante-Drozdek): 867,935 viewers in total

No other Polish film released this year has reached 2 million tickets. TVN24 reports that in the overall ranking, which includes foreign releases, "Lalka" already sits second, ahead of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" and the latest Minions film. It is not yet the year's top-grossing release in Polish cinemas.

No streaming release soon

The producer has responded to questions about when the film could reach streaming services. Radosław Drabik, who devised and produced the project, said "Lalka" will not appear on any platform in the coming months and that viewers should first see it in a cinema.

Two adaptations in one month

The story is set in Warsaw at the end of the 19th century. Marcin Dorociński plays Stanisław Wokulski, who is consumed by love for Izabela Łęcka, played by Kamila Urzędowska. The film was the most anticipated Polish production of the year (Była środa po południu, gdy przekazano komunikat ws. Marka Kondrata. To było tylko kwestią czasu - Pomponik w INTERIA.PL – pomponik.pl). Filmmakers had adapted the novel twice before. In September, two new versions reached audiences: Paweł Maślona's adaptation, which departs from the original and has drawn controversy, and Kawalski's, which stays closer to the intentions of the author, whose real name was Aleksander Głowacki.