Africa Is Still Opening Cinemas

In the first two weeks of October, Angola reopened two restored cinemas in Luanda dating to 1932 and 1960, Ster-Kinekor reopened an upgraded multiplex in Cape Town, and Pathé announced plans for a new cinema in Casablanca for 2027. The AFP Box Office Registry documents at least 1,884 verified cinema screens across 42 African countries, on a continent of nearly 1.6 billion people. Screens are still scarce, yet the registry has recorded more openings, reopenings, restorations and public investment than expected. Some of it is in familiar markets such as Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa. Some is in countries less often discussed, including Angola, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Guinea. Each development is modest in scale, and the pace of activity seems to be picking up. This is a snapshot of what AFP has documented between October 2025 and October 2026, not a full account. In the current count, at least 29 cinemas opened, reopened, were taken over or upgraded, at least 19 are coming, funded or planned, and at least 7 closed. Dates may change, and more entries are likely as research continues. Opened or Reopened

• Ethiopia. Addis Cinema Complex, a city-run venue in Addis Ababa with two halls and 1,479 seats, opened on 14 October 2025. The Children and Youth Theater and Cinema Complex, with halls of 168 and 158 seats, opened in late September 2025. On 6 February 2026, Videobet opened a permanent cinema in central Addis Ababa, inside the Red Terror Martyrs' Memorial Museum building, for repertory screenings and talks.
• Angola. The Cine-Estúdio in Moçâmedes, Namibe province, was begun in the mid-1970s and left unfinished in 1975. It opened on 10 October 2025 as a cultural centre. In Luanda, the Nacional Cine-Teatro, first opened in 1932, reopened on 8 October 2026 after restoration, and Cine N'Gola in Rangel, first opened in 1960, reopened on 12 October 2026.
• Morocco. Two premium venues opened in Rabat on 17 December 2025: Pathé Dar Essalam, with four screens and 149 seats, and Megarama's first IMAX room, at Arribat Center, with 150 seats.
• South Africa. Nu Metro opened a cinema at Riverside Mall, Mbombela, on 7 August 2026.
• Zimbabwe. Road House Cinema returned to Sam Levy's Village in Harare in July 2026.
• Madagascar. Cínepax reopened its four rooms at Tanà Water Front, Antananarivo, in April 2026, after six months closed, with refurbished rooms and new projection and sound.
• Uganda. Aftersun Cinema and Café, a Kampala venue of about 50 seats that grew out of a film club, was due to open on 1 May 2026.
• Tunisia. A 120-seat screening room opened in May 2026 at the Russian Centre of Culture and Science in central Tunis.
• Kenya. The Kenya Film Commission and Dedan Kimathi University of Technology launched the KFC–DeKUT CineHub in Nyeri on 14 August 2026, with film exhibition, a screening room, and production and editing facilities.

New Operators

• Cameroon. After CanalOlympia pulled out, its Bessengué hall in Douala relaunched as Majestic Bessengué in December 2025. The same month, the University of Yaoundé I hall reopened as Majestic Yaoundé I, with about 300 seats indoors and an open-air space.
• Benin. Majestic Cinéma now runs the former CanalOlympia halls at Wologuèdè and Marina in Cotonou.
• Burkina Faso. The former CanalOlympia Yennenga hall in Ouaga 2000, Ouagadougou, reopened on 16 May 2026 as the Centre Culturel du Faso. Gnandoro Vision runs the 300-seat hall.
• South Africa. Nu Metro reopened two former Ster-Kinekor sites, Gateway in uMhlanga on 3 October 2025 and Cavendish Square in Cape Town in December 2025, and took over the former Ster-Kinekor site at Bedford Square, Bedfordview.
• Nigeria. Nile Cinemas absorbed VIVA Cinemas in December 2025, taking over its sites in Ikeja, Ibadan, Ilorin and Enugu.

Upgraded

• South Africa. Ster-Kinekor reopened two remodeled cinemas at The Zone @ Rosebank as Cine Prestige theatres at the end of November 2025. On 9 October 2026, it reopened Tyger Valley in Bellville with its APEX premium large-format auditorium, two Cine Prestige theatres and a Kids' Cinema.

Confirmed — Open Dates to Come

• Liberia. Monrovia Cinema Plus, a new cinema in Monrovia Super Mall, said on its Facebook page in October that it would open within two weeks.
• Angola. The Cinemateca Nacional, in the restored Cine Alfa 1 and 2 building in Luanda, is scheduled to open on 14 October 2026. Cine Tropical in Luanda is being restored, with no completion date published. A six- to seven-screen cinema is planned for the Kinaxixi shopping centre in central Luanda, with no operator or opening date announced.
• Morocco. In results published on 5 August 2026, the Moroccan Cinema Centre (CCM) gave MAD 4 million (US$408,000) each to two new Casablanca cinemas, Cinerji Aïn Sebaâ and Cinéma Empire. It also funded renovation and digitisation at Cinéma Alcazar in Tangier, and digitisation at Mégarama City Mall in Tangier and Cinéma Renaissance in Rabat. Cinerji's five-screen Aïn Sebaâ project was waiting on its building permit in August, with nine to 12 months of construction to follow, and the company plans cinemas in Agadir, Dar Bouazza and Marrakech for 2027. Pathé has a second Rabat multiplex in development at Hay Riad, with IMAX and 4DX, and no opening date yet. On 6 October 2026, Pathé announced another Casablanca cinema for 2027.
• Guinea. The first stone of the Cinema Center de Guinée was laid on 28 April 2026, on the site of the old Cinéma Liberté in Kaloum, Conakry. Work is scheduled to take two years, with one cinema hall and an opening planned for 2028.
• Egypt. In November 2025, the Culture Minister ordered faster work on Cinema Diana in downtown Cairo, to turn it into a modern cinema and theatre. No reopening date has been given.

Plans and Public Money

• Ghana. On 9 April 2026, the National Film Authority (NFA) toured two long-closed Accra cinemas, the Roxy in Adabraka and the Orion at Kwame Nkrumah Circle. It named the Rex as a third site it wants rehabilitated, said it is looking for new cinema locations, and asked investors and developers to come in. Separately, the NFA's GH¢20 million (US$1.8 million) Film Development Fund, launched on 20 May 2026 at Silverbird Cinema in Accra, has a cinema infrastructure window. Its first call ran from 31 July to 31 August and drew 83 applications.

Regular Screenings Outside Cinemas

• Egypt. The Ministry of Culture's People's Cinema programme shows current Egyptian releases in culture palaces across 21 venues in 17 governorates.
• Mali. Ciné-Palais, which focuses on Malian films, started on 11 April 2026 at the Palais de la Culture Amadou Hampâté Bâ in Bamako.
• Angola. CineZunga, a mobile cinema, says it has run more than 150 screenings in more than 50 municipalities since 2024, reaching more than 120,000 people in streets, squares and villages.
• Mozambique. MaputoCineNoites runs outdoor evening screenings at seven spaces in Maputo.
• Sudan. Public film screenings returned to Khartoum in August 2026, across several open-air settings.

Closed

• CanalOlympia. Vivendi's 18-hall network across 12 African countries stopped operating during 2025 and early 2026. The three halls in the Republic of Congo, at Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and Oyo, closed on 26 October 2025. Godopé in Lomé, Togo, closed on 23 November. Téranga in Dakar closed on 14 December and was handed back to the Senegalese state in March 2026. Rebero in Kigali closed on 28 December. Halls in Cameroon, Benin and Burkina Faso have reopened under new operators, as noted above.
• Rwanda. Century Cinema in Kigali was listed as closed in August 2026.

Every item here is logged, with sources, in the AFP Box Office Registry, which was audited and refreshed on 13 October 2026. The next step, already underway, is to make contact and begin tracking programming.