In a country where the film industry data is as scarce and inaccessible as it is in Mongolia, it is hard to make precise statements regarding the state of the industry. Still, one thing is clear: the domestic film industry is undeniably experiencing a post-pandemic boom. The most direct and telling indicator is the fact that on the list of the top 40 local films (https://kinosan.mn/boxOffice) with the highest attendance numbers of all time, just three were made before the COVID-19 pandemic (Mongolian cinemas only report attendance numbers, not box office revenue figures, making it even more difficult to conduct precise, quantitative studies).

Mongolian arthouse films have also gained momentum internationally, performing strongly on the festival circuit and raising both domestic and foreign interest in Mongolian projects. Overall, the market is evolving, especially via co-production, incentive policies, and festival exposure, but there remain infrastructural, political, and market-scale constraints.

To understand where Mongolian cinema stands today, we need to take a broader look at the state of its film industry. To be sure, the infrastructure is being built and developed. In 2021, Mongolia passed its first law dedicated to promoting film art (https://legalinfo.mn/mn/edtl/16532053939751), which came into effect on January 1, 2022. This was followed by the establishment of both the Mongolian National Film Council (MNFC), under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth, and the Film Promotion Fund worth 10 billion tugrug (US$2.86 million). Since then, the Council has launched training programs across nearly all sectors of filmmaking, supported local film festivals, and funded productions through biannual open calls.

Mongolia has an annual output of approximately 35-40 feature films that are released in cinemas. Over 20 domestic feature films were produced and released in the first eight months of 2025. Most of these are the “usual suspects” or the staple of nearly all mainstream commercial markets: comedies, horrors, and crime-action flicks. In recent years, however, some subgenres have become increasingly popular. The genres of crime, action, and comedy are often blended together in stories that are set abroad—for both exotic appeal and xenophobic paranoia—usually in China, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries. Another interesting subgenre to emerge recently is the high school horror film, targeted at the broader genre’s most loyal audience and often displaying teenagers in school uniform on their posters.

The domestic film industry has been performing well in the post-pandemic years. As of H1 2025, however, there are no standout productions or box office records. So far, the only 2025 production to have surpassed the 200,000 admissions bar is In Da House 3, a crime comedy set and shot in South Korea, currently ranking at number 9 on the list of the 40 most popular domestic theatrical releases. There are only three other 2025 titles on the same list. The second best-performing title of the year is Tsuvuun Tsag (“Hard Times”), a historical drama by Fantastic Production, which is most likely the most profitable production company in the country—4 out of the top 10 local films with the highest admissions are Fantastic titles. Notably, one of the most niche releases of the year, Puuduu, became the first Mongolian puppet animated film.

Nomadia Pictures is the largest production company in Mongolia and holds one-third of the domestic film market, producing about 40 feature films a year. It frequently co-produces with smaller or even other major studios, effectively underwriting much of Mongolia’s commercial film output.

Since the passing of the Film Law, Mongolia offers a film rebate program to incentivize foreign filmmakers to shoot their films on Mongolian territory. Through this program, eligible foreign producers can receive a refund of up to 45% of their production expenses incurred in Mongolia. To qualify for the rebate, the film must be intended for international distribution and can be produced either solely by the foreign company or in collaboration with a Mongolian company and producer.

In 2024, the Mongolian National Film Council granted 30 filming permits to foreign nationals and entities from 13 countries, including Australia, the United States, France, Japan, Italy, and Malta, for conducting film shoots in Mongolia. During these film shoots, a total budget of 2,153,783,398.415 MNT (US$599,140) was spent within the territory of Mongolia.

The domestic film and TV market is valued at around 101 billion MNT (~US $28 million) annually, with serial content accounting for roughly 20 billion MNT.

The three most common film financing models in Mongolia are self-financing, studio investment, and private equity. Sources of private capital are rarely disclosed and are virtually impossible to discover with either many investors deliberately choosing anonymity or many producers choosing to withhold the information. International partnerships are becoming increasingly common for both arthouse and commercial sectors. Arthouse successes that put Mongolia on the international festival radar, such as If Only I Could Hibernate and City of Wind, are nearly all co-productions between multiple countries.

State grants are yet to play any major role in film financing in Mongolia. Mongolian National Film Council directly supports the production of local films through a biannual open call for both grants and loans. While this effort itself is commendable, the final results are often mixed. On the one hand, an arthouse film such as City of Wind, the first Mongolian feature to be included in the official selection at Venice Film Festival, was a beneficiary of the state grant. On the other hand, many grants were given to commercial film projects proposed by people with little proven experience, raising concerns over transparency.

Distribution of international films in Mongolia is dominated by two major players—Bloomsbury and Filmbridge—who mostly handle films of the major Hollywood and Korean studios. Legitimate efforts to diversify cinematic offerings face uphill battles. Sayan Pictures, a new production and distribution company, started bringing to Mongolian screens critically acclaimed festival titles such as Anatomy of a Murder and Only the River Flows. While a welcome boon to the country’s few cinephiles, these efforts seem to have resulted in substantial financial loss for the company, which now has partially shifted its focus to bringing South East Asian erotic films to streaming platforms.

A major post-pandemic shift has been the direct licensing of streaming rights from global studios by local IPTV/OTT services, as opposed to buying them from distributors like Bloomsbury and Filmbridge. Following the footsteps of major international streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, all major streaming and IPTV companies have started making their own original content.

There are no distributors for local films, and producers directly negotiate with the cinemas and streaming platforms to release their films. Producers, or sometimes even the directors themselves, negotiate with cinema owners the screening schedules based on the film’s appeal.

The cinemas take 50% of the ticket sales and tend to have a greater say in how long a film’s theatrical run lasts.

While recent international co-productions have traveled well on the festival circuit, the domestic box office is unsurprisingly dominated by local genre fare. But the situation has somewhat improved compared to a few years ago when the occasional art films would tour festivals abroad but remain largely unknown and inaccessible to local audiences. Hibernate, for example, was the 5th most-watched domestic film in Mongolia last year (23rd of all time) with over 67 thousand theatrical admissions.

According to the Cinema Management Association, the sector is projected to expand to 75 screens with 10503 seats by the end of this year, not a small sum for a country with just 3.5 million people. Meanwhile, many filmmakers express dissatisfaction with the high cost of theatrical premieres and exhibition, with many increasingly opting for direct-to-VOD releases. But the streaming platforms come with their own set of challenges. Producers and directors often voice their suspicion of the services’ lack of revenue transparency and even complicity in piracy. Local films are frequently pirated and distributed through social media services such as Telegram within Mongolia and via WeChat in Inner Mongolia, which is home to nearly twice as much ethnic Mongolians. Illegal screenings of foreign films with Mongolian subtitles are rampant in pubs, cafes, and restaurants in Ulaanbaatar where owners charge for entry.

Urgoo Cinema is the largest cinema chain with the largest market share and highest number of branches. The company has recently announced that it will soon open a second IMAX screen in Mongolia, although any other information, including where the cinema would be, is under wraps at the moment. The most interesting development in the theatrical world of the Mongolian film industry has been Tengis Cinema’s recent expansion. Tengis, the longest-running cinema in the country that has been operating since 1985 (under the name Ylalt or “Victory” before 2003), has bought two minor players this year: Soyombo and Gegeenten cinemas.

Ori Studios, affiliated with the major television channel Mongol TV, has recently opened a 2000 square meter sound stage, already the largest in Mongolia but just the first block in a massive production facility they’re building on the eastern outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. The largest production company, Nomadia Pictures, also has sizable production facilities.

However, visiting international filmmakers unanimously complain about the lack of one-stop production services and point out the logistical and organizational difficulties of relying on multiple rental partners for producing a film in Mongolia.

Same as virtually all other markets around the world, streaming services have grown exponentially in Mongolia since the pandemic, changing the audience’s viewing habits perhaps for good. That the largest film production company in the country, Nomadia Pictures, has produced 6 theatrical releases but 18 digital releases this year is ample evidence of this.

Streaming in Mongolia is led by telecommunication companies. Univision and LookTV—IPTV and OTT platforms under the Unitel Group, same as Nomadia Pictures—holds 71 percent of the market. Around 13 percent is held by Skymedia and GoPlus, IPTV and OTT platforms under the telecommunications company Skytel, and 11 percent is held by Voo, which operate under the telecommunications giant Mobicom. The remaining 5 percent are divided between smaller players such as Playmo, 88Films, and Animax. These platforms utilize either a subscription model or a HVOD model. AVOD or Advertising-Based Video-On-Demand hasn’t been introduced to Mongolia yet.

About 80 percent of Mongolian streaming content is watched on IPTV and about 20 percent on OTT platforms. This means that the most used device for local content consumption is the smart TV. While OTT users are predominantly 25-35 year-olds, the biggest group of IPTV users are over 35 and often have kids.

International co-productions are eligible for the Mongolian National Film Council’s grants and loans. The Council has been positioning itself aggressively for inbound foreign shoots. Arthouse successes that put Mongolia on the international festival radar, such as If Only I Could Hibernate and City of Wind— the first Mongolian features to screen in the official selections at Cannes and Venice, respectively—are nearly all co-productions between multiple countries.

Mongolia has no state-level formal co-production treaties, but commercial co-productions with other Asian countries are in the making. One highly anticipated project is a Korean-Mongolian co-production by Kairos Makers company and Nomadia Pictures. Currently untitled and close to wrapping the shoot, the film features a mixed cast and crew from both countries. The story is under wraps except for a vague synopsis which states that “an old love rekindles after a man and a woman run into each other again after many years.”