Kazakhstan’s Cinema Market: Kazakhfilm Fined, Kinopark Under Antitrust Scrutiny

The Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition has responded to a deputy’s request about a possible monopoly in Kazakhstan’s film distribution market, Orda.kz reports

The agency said it had previously checked the contract between Kazakhfilm and Moonlight Pictures LLP for the production of “The Tale of the Pink Hare 2” and found no violations of antitrust legislation. According to the agency, the film was financed at the company’s own expense and did not receive support from the State Center for National Cinema Support.

At the same time, the studio was twice held administratively liable for providing false information and for failing to provide information to the antimonopoly authority. The total amount of fines was 2,831,040 tenge.

The agency also focused on the film distribution market in Almaty. The city department identified signs of abuse of a dominant position by Kinopark Center LLP, including restricting access to film distribution services and imposing an advertising budget.

From June 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025, the total volume of the film distribution market in Almaty amounted to 16.8 billion tenge. The share of the Kinopark group was 6.3 billion tenge, or 37.9%.

Based on the inspection results, the agency said it would take response measures against Kinopark Center if the violations are confirmed. In addition, by the end of the second quarter of 2026, it plans to conduct a broader analysis of the state of competition in the film distribution market.

Original author:Ilya Astakhov