2016 in film is an overview of events, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, festivals, a list of films released, and notable deaths.

Evaluation of the year

In his article highlighting the best films of 2016, Richard Brody of The New Yorker stated, "Hollywood is the world's best money-laundering machine. It takes in huge amounts of money from the sale of mass-market commodities and cleanses some of it with the production of cinematic masterworks. Earning billions of dollars from C.G.I. comedies for children, superhero movies, sci-fi apocalypses, and other popular genres, the big studios channel some of those funds into movies by Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, James Gray, and other worthies. Sometimes there's even an overlap between the two groups of movies, as when Ryan Coogler made Creed, or when Scorsese made the modernist horror instant-classic Shutter Island, or when Clint Eastwood makes just about anything."

Highest-grossing films

The top ten films released in 2016 by worldwide gross are as follows: Captain America: Civil War, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Finding Dory, and Zootopia grossed more than $1 billion each, making them among the highest-grossing films of all time. This is the first year that two animated films (Finding Dory and Zootopia) grossed over $1 billion in a single year, and are among the highest-grossing animated films. Captain America: Civil War, Zootopia, Kung Fu Panda 3, Warcraft, and The Great Wall have all grossed more than ¥1 billion at the Chinese box office, making them among the highest-grossing films in China.

2016 box office records

Studio records

Film records

Events

Award ceremonies

Festivals

List of some of the film festivals for 2016 that have been accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

Awards

2016 films

By country/region

By genre/medium

Deaths

Film debuts