# 2009 in film
**2009 in film** refers to the events, releases and industry results of the cinema year 2009, a year that combined record global box-office revenue, a decisive commercial breakthrough for digital 3-D projection led by *Avatar*, and a critical consensus that placed [Kathryn Bigelow](https://www.edgepedia.org/kathryn-bigelow)'s war film *The Hurt Locker* and [Jacques Audiard](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-audiard)'s *A Prophet* at the top of most year-end lists.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Global box office | $29.9 billion, up 7.6% and a record high, per the Motion Picture Association of America[1](https://www.thewrap.com/mpaa-global-bo-soars-76-record-high-2009-15129/) |
| North American spending | $10.6 billion on movie tickets, against $18.8 billion for the foreign market[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) |
| Biggest film | *Avatar* (James Cameron), $2.7 billion worldwide, most of it earned on 3-D screens[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) |
| 3-D boom | 3-D revenue rose from $200 million in 2008 to $2.2 billion in 2010, a tenfold increase driven largely by *Avatar*[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/) |
| European admissions | 1,171.84 million tickets sold across Europe, up 6.3% from 2008[3](https://www.mediasalles.it/ybk09/berlin/cinema-going.htm) |
| World production | 7,233 feature films produced in 2009; India, Nigeria, the United States, Japan and China together made 54.4% of them[4](https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/from-international-blockbusters-to-national-hits-analysis-of-the-2010-uis-survey-on-feature-film-statistics-en.pdf) |
| Critics' No. 1 | *The Hurt Locker* (Kathryn Bigelow) topped the Film Comment critics' poll; *A Prophet* (Jacques Audiard) topped Sight & Sound's poll of 60 critics[5](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/extended-readers-poll-results-best-of-the-decade-and-2009/) • [6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/films-2009) |
## Box office and the 3-D breakthrough
The year's commercial story centered on *Avatar*, released the week before Christmas 2009. It earned $2.7 billion worldwide, most of it on 3-D screens, and its success pushed 3-D from a novelty format to a near-essential for would-be blockbusters, both animated and live-action[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/). The premium format allowed distributors to charge a surcharge per ticket, and the 3-D revenue spike from $200 million in 2008 to $2.2 billion in 2010 traces directly to the audience *Avatar* built[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/).
**Digital projection spread quickly.** In 2009 most theaters still showed films on reels of acetate as they had throughout the industry's hundred-year history, with only about 16,000 screens outfitted for digital projection; within a few years the figure reached 111,000, nearly seven times as many[2](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/). The Digital Cinema Initiatives specification agreed by the major studios in 2002 had been implemented at approximately 20 percent of North American screens by mid-2009 and crossed 50 percent by mid-2011[7](https://thecutindex.com/avatar-how-a-2009-performance-capture-pipeline-built-the-y2k-tentpole-cinema-era/).
The record revenue came despite the global economic downturn. In Europe, admissions rose 6.3% to 1,171.84 million spectators; France crossed the 200-million-admissions threshold for the first time since 1982, the United Kingdom grew 5.6% to 173.5 million tickets, and Germany posted its best result in five years with 146.4 million spectators[3](https://www.mediasalles.it/ybk09/berlin/cinema-going.htm). In the United Kingdom, 2009 was the best year ever in box-office takings and the second best year for admissions since 1971[8](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jul/21/cinema-takings-at-record-high). In Spain, theaters took 675 million euros, 9% more than in 2008, with 110 million viewers; *Up*, *Agora* and *Avatar* led the year's different categories there[9](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/134043/).
The MPAA attributed the strength partly to frequent moviegoers, those attending once a month or more, who make up only 10% of the population but bought half of all tickets sold in 2009[1](https://www.thewrap.com/mpaa-global-bo-soars-76-record-high-2009-15129/).
## Critical reception
Year-end critics' polls converged on a small group of films. In Film Comment's critics' poll, *The Hurt Locker* ranked first, followed by *Inglourious Basterds* ([Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino)), *A Serious Man* (Joel & [Ethan Coen](https://www.edgepedia.org/ethan-coen)), *Fantastic Mr. Fox* ([Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson)) and *Summer Hours* (Olivier Assayas)[5](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/extended-readers-poll-results-best-of-the-decade-and-2009/). Sight & Sound's poll of 60 critics, who named 140 titles, placed *A Prophet* first, with *The Hurt Locker* and Claire Denis's *35 Shots of Rum* tied at second; the magazine's introduction noted a French resurgence and what it called an unprecedentedly strong showing by women directors[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/films-2009). Six of that poll's top ten had premiered at Cannes[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/films-2009).
Other frequently cited titles included *Up*, *[Up in the Air](https://www.edgepedia.org/up-in-the-air-2009-film)*, *Where the Wild Things Are*, *The White Ribbon*, *Antichrist*, *Bright Star*, *A Single Man*, *(500) Days of Summer* and *Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire*[5](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/extended-readers-poll-results-best-of-the-decade-and-2009/) • [10](https://the170.com/annual-top-20-films-lists/). [The A.V. Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-a-v-club)'s five film critics found so little consensus that only their No. 1 film appeared on all five of their top-20 lists, prompting them to expand the list from ten titles to twenty[11](https://www.avclub.com/the-year-in-film-2009-1798220140).
## The Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards, held on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre, honored films released in 2009[12](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2010/F). [Jeff Bridges](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeff-bridges) won Best Actor for *Crazy Heart*, Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for *The Blind Side*, and [Christoph Waltz](https://www.edgepedia.org/christoph-waltz) won Best Supporting Actor for *Inglourious Basterds*[12](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2010/F).
Pixar's *Up* won Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score and became the second animated film ever nominated for Best Picture, following *[Beauty and the Beast](https://www.edgepedia.org/beauty-and-the-beast-1991-film)* (1991); it was also among the year's top moneymakers at $293 million domestic and $731 million worldwide[13](https://www.filmsite.org/2009-filmhistory.html).
## Global production
World feature film production rose despite the economic downturn following 2008, reaching 7,233 films in 2009, a 27.8% increase over 2005. Five countries had unmatched production volume that year: India (1,288 films), Nigeria (987), the United States (734), Japan (448) and China (475), together accounting for 54.4% of world production[4](https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/from-international-blockbusters-to-national-hits-analysis-of-the-2010-uis-survey-on-feature-film-statistics-en.pdf). In Europe, admissions increased in 20 markets while decreasing in only six, and the number of films generating more than 5 million admissions rose from 34 to 42[14](https://agenceurope.eu/en/bulletin/article/10149/30).
The year also produced a box-office landmark outside fiction film: [Michael Jackson](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-jackson)'s *This Is It* soon became the highest-grossing concert movie and documentary in the history of cinema[13](https://www.filmsite.org/2009-filmhistory.html).
## References
1. [MPAA: Global B.O. Soars 7.6% to Record High in 2009, TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/mpaa-global-bo-soars-76-record-high-2009-15129/)
2. [5 Things We've Learned in 5 Years of Box Office Reports, TIME](https://time.com/49440/box-office-reports/)
3. [2009: A Record Year for Cinema-Going in Europe's Movie Theatres, MEDIA Salles](https://www.mediasalles.it/ybk09/berlin/cinema-going.htm)
4. [From International Blockbusters to National Hits: Analysis of the 2010 UIS Survey on Feature Film Statistics, UNESCO Institute for Statistics](https://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/from-international-blockbusters-to-national-hits-analysis-of-the-2010-uis-survey-on-feature-film-statistics-en.pdf)
5. [Extended Readers' Poll Results: Best of the Decade and 2009, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/extended-readers-poll-results-best-of-the-decade-and-2009/)
6. [The films of 2009, Sight & Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/films-2009)
7. [Avatar: How a 2009 Performance-Capture Pipeline Built the Y2K Tentpole Cinema Era, The Cut Index](https://thecutindex.com/avatar-how-a-2009-performance-capture-pipeline-built-the-y2k-tentpole-cinema-era/)
8. [Cinema takings at record high, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jul/21/cinema-takings-at-record-high)
9. [The 2009 takings stand as the second-highest figure of the last decade, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/134043/)
10. [Annual Top Films Lists, the170](https://the170.com/annual-top-20-films-lists/)
11. [The year in film 2009, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/the-year-in-film-2009-1798220140)
12. [82nd Academy Awards (2010), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2010/F)
13. [Film History Milestones - 2009, Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/2009-filmhistory.html)
14. [European cinema admissions in 2009, Agence Europe](https://agenceurope.eu/en/bulletin/article/10149/30)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › National and regional cinemas by year › Genre and era list systems › Film list systems and reference encyclopedias*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
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