Nepali cinema is making more films than ever. Fewer people are watching them in cinemas

The board that certifies releases logged a record number of Nepali-language features in a recent year. Most of them played for a week and left. (Film Development Board, Nepal 2025)

The hits are bigger than ever, but the middle has gone: the film that once made a modest return in single-screen halls across the country now competes with everything on a phone.

A pattern seen elsewhere

Music went through the same shift a decade earlier, and the global industry's own reports describe the shape of the recovery: streaming revenue eventually replaced what was lost, but it was distributed very differently. (‘Global Music Report’ 2025)

Producers are experimenting with shorter theatrical windows and direct deals with platforms. Nobody has found the formula yet.