English-Language Cinema and Theater in Budapest: Where to Go and How to Read the Listings

To see a film in English in Budapest, pick a screening marked magyar felirattal or Feliratos, which means the original soundtrack with Hungarian subtitles, at an art-house cinema such as Corvin, Puskin, Művész, Toldi or Uránia (3,200 HUF at the first four) or at a Cinema City multiplex (3,350 HUF, or 1,990 HUF at Allee). For the stage, the Opera House runs English surtitles at its performances, and Vígszínház stages seven productions with English surtitles.

Hungary dubs most mainstream releases, so the one skill that matters is reading the listing. Once you know three words, you can walk into almost any cinema in town.

The Uránia’s main hall, where the National Theatre Live and Met opera broadcasts play. Photo: SZFE Hivatalos, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

📋 At a Glance

🎬 The word to look for	magyar felirattal or Feliratos: original sound, Hungarian subtitles
🚫 The word to avoid	Szinkronizált: dubbed into Hungarian
🎟️ Art-house ticket	3,200 HUF, 2,350 HUF on the discount day
🍿 Multiplex ticket	3,350 HUF for 2D, 2,200 HUF on Wednesdays, 1,990 HUF at Allee
🎭 Opera with English surtitles	Opera House, from 3,600 HUF
🇬🇧 London theater on screen	National Theatre Live at Uránia, 5,100 HUF

How to read a Hungarian film listing

Every cinema in Budapest prints the language version next to the showtime. These are the labels you will meet:

On the listing	What it means	Good for an English speaker?
magyar felirattal, Feliratos, F	Original soundtrack, Hungarian subtitles	Yes, for a film made in English
OV, Original Version (Corvin)	Original English soundtrack, no subtitles	Yes
eredeti nyelvű	Original-language screening	Yes, if the original is English
angol felirattal	English subtitles	Yes, for a Hungarian or other foreign film
szinkronizált, Szinkronizált, Sz	Dubbed into Hungarian	No
SZN, szöveg nélkül	No dialogue	Yes

The trap that catches visitors: the same film often runs dubbed in one hall and subtitled in the next, so check the label on the exact showtime, not on the film.

Uránia also screens Hungarian films with English subtitles, marked in its weekly program as “in Hungarian, with English subtitles”, which is a rare chance to see new Hungarian cinema without a word of the language.

Source: Corvin’s English-language screenings page, Cinema City screening labels and Uránia’s weekly program, checked 8 November 2026.

Cinemas that screen films in the original

Cinema	What it shows	Full price	Cheapest day	Address
Corvin	Art-house and new releases, subtitled	3,200 HUF	Wednesday, 2,350 HUF	Corvin köz 1
Puskin	Art-house, subtitled	3,200 HUF	Monday, 2,350 HUF	Kossuth Lajos utca 18
Művész	Art-house, subtitled	3,200 HUF	Tuesday, 2,350 HUF	Teréz körút 30
Toldi	Art-house, subtitled	3,200 HUF	Tuesday, 2,350 HUF	Bajcsy-Zsilinszky út 36-38
Uránia	Art-house, London theater, Met opera	Varies by screening		Rákóczi út 21
Cinema City Allee	One hall for original-version films every day	1,990 HUF, every show	Every day	Október huszonharmadika utca 8-10
Cinema City Westend, Arena, Mammut	Mostly dubbed, some subtitled	3,350 HUF (2D)	Wednesday, 2,200 HUF	Váci út 1-3; Kerepesi út 9; Lövőház utca 2-6

Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the box office or online. Converted at 1 USD = 326 HUF, the ECB rate on 6 November 2026: 1,990 HUF is about $6, 2,200 HUF about $7, 2,350 HUF about $7, 3,200 HUF about $10 and 3,350 HUF about $10. Rates move, so treat the dollar figures as indicative.

Corvin

The old picture palace standing in its own courtyard off József körút is the easiest start, because it keeps an English page that lists every English-language screening on the schedule, with dates. A full-price ticket is 3,200 HUF (about $10); on Wednesdays it is 2,350 HUF (about $7). Children under 6, visitors aged 60 and over, and holders of a Hungarian student card, an ISIC or an ITIC teacher card pay 2,400 HUF. Corvin is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Corvin’s facade on Corvin köz, photographed in 2014; the posters and prices on it are from that year. Photo: Illustratedjc, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Puskin, Művész and Toldi

The same company, Budapest Film, runs three more art-house screens in the center, with the same 3,200 HUF ticket and the same discounts. Each has its own cheap day at 2,350 HUF: Monday at Puskin, Tuesday at Művész and Toldi. Puskin, which turns 100 in November 2026, charges 2,400 HUF for its two small rooms, Annie Hall and Mephisto. Most of their foreign films run with Hungarian subtitles, so an English-language title is usually in English.

Source: ticket prices and closing days at corvinmozi.hu, puskinmozi.hu, muveszmozi.hu and toldimozi.hu, checked 8 November 2026.

Uránia National Film Theatre

The Uránia on Rákóczi út is the grandest room in town, a Moorish-revival hall of gilt arches, and its weekly program spells out the language of every film in English. The box office opens at 14:30 on weekdays and 10:30 at weekends. It is also where London and New York come to Budapest on screen; see below.

Cinema City multiplexes

The multiplex chain dubs most of its program, but every listing carries a label: Feliratos for subtitled, Szinkronizált for dubbed. Allee in Újbuda keeps one of its 13 halls for original-version screenings every day of the year, and every ticket there costs 1,990 HUF (about $6), 2D or 3D. At Westend, Arena and Mammut a standard 2D ticket is 3,350 HUF (about $10) and 2,200 HUF (about $7) on Wednesdays; an IMAX 2D ticket at Arena is 3,850 HUF. Some English films at Cinema City run in the original with no subtitles at all, listed with English as the only language. Buying online adds 140 HUF a ticket, and 3D glasses cost 400 HUF.

Source: Cinema City Allee and the price lists on the Allee, Westend, Arena and Mammut pages, checked 8 November 2026.

How to book a cinema ticket

At the Budapest Film cinemas (Corvin, Puskin, Művész, Toldi), click the showtime, then “Foglalás / Vásárlás”. Foglalás reserves seats that you collect at the box office up to 30 minutes before the film; Vásárlás pays online by card. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first screening. Phone bookings go to +36 1 224 5650, every day from 13:00 to 21:00; requests sent by email are not taken.

Cinema City sells online through each cinema’s page, with the 140 HUF fee, and its box offices take Visa, Mastercard and American Express but do not exchange foreign currency.

London theater and the Met on screen

Uránia screens National Theatre Live, filmed stage productions from London, in English with English subtitles. The autumn 2026 series ends with J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World on Tuesday 24 November at 19:00. Tickets are 5,100 HUF (about $16), or 4,500 HUF for students, pensioners, teachers, under-26s and over-65s.

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD season runs at Uránia until June 2027; Samson et Dalila, for example, is sung in French with Hungarian and English subtitles. The next dates are the encore of Carmen on Sunday 15 November at 18:00, Samson et Dalila live on Saturday 5 December at 18:00 (encore Sunday 13 December at 17:00) and The Magic Flute on Saturday 26 December at 11:00. Seats cost 6,400, 6,900 or 7,400 HUF depending on the row, and buying eight different broadcasts at once takes 20% off.

Source: Uránia’s National Theatre Live 2026 and Met Live in HD 2026/27 pages, dates, languages and prices checked 8 November 2026.

Opera and ballet with English surtitles

At the Hungarian State Opera House, Hungarian and English surtitles run above the stage. The same texts, plus the original libretto, sit on small screens in the armrests of the front stalls row and Level 3, and on touch screens on the seat backs in the rest of the stalls.

On a standard night the main stage runs from 3,600 HUF (about $11) for a Level 3 wings seat or a standing place, both with a restricted view, to 59,000 HUF for the front stalls. A small number of standing tickets go on sale two hours before an evening performance and one hour before a matinee. The box office takes forint only; online payment is by card. The Nutcracker returns to the Opera House stage on 20 November 2026 and runs through the rest of the month, a ballet that needs no surtitles at all.

The ceiling fresco and chandelier above the Opera House auditorium. Photo: Christo, CC0, resized, via Wikimedia Commons

Our Opera House guide has the full seat map, the building tour and the dress question.

Source: surtitles and standing tickets from the Opera’s ticket FAQ, prices from its 2026/27 price list, and dates from the program calendar, checked 8 November 2026.

Theater with English surtitles

Vígszínház

The Comedy Theater on Szent István körút runs seven productions with English surtitles: Pride and Prejudice, The Seagull, The Great Gatsby (a Hungarian musical version), Sommerreise (Víg Salon, Hegedűs Gyula utca 2), The Great Dictator, Pinocchio and Kafka’s The Castle. The next surtitled Great Gatsby is on Thursday 19 November 2026 at 19:00. Ticket prices move with demand, so check the seat map when you book.

Where you sit matters more than usual. The theater says the surtitles read best from rows 11 to 18 of the stalls and the first two rows of the balcony. The box office at Szent István körút 14 is open every day from 11:00 to 19:00.

Source: vigszinhaz.hu, surtitled productions and box office hours, its note on surtitles and the Great Gatsby page, checked 8 November 2026.

Budapest Operetta Theatre

Kálmán’s Csárdás Princess, the best-known Hungarian operetta, plays at the Operetta Theatre on Nagymező utca with English subtitles. The theater warns that the production’s setting leaves the subtitles only partly visible from the upstairs auditorium, so book the ground floor. Tickets are sold on the theater’s own site and at operett.jegy.hu.

Source: operett.hu, Csárdás Princess, checked 8 November 2026.

Plays performed in English

Budapest English Theatre, a group of professional theater makers living in the city, has staged plays in English since 2014 and announces each production on its site. The National Theatre runs occasional performances with English subtitles and lists them on its English pages.

Shows that need no language

Dance travels best. The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble dances Roots and Wings (Gyökerek és szárnyak) at its home stage, the Hungarian Heritage House on Corvin tér, on 19, 20 and 21 November 2026 at 19:00, with two more dates on 22 and 23 January 2027. Our folk dance guide has the rest of the season and the dance-house nights where you join in.

For December, our Christmas concerts guide lists the Nutcracker performances and the concerts where the music does the talking.

Source: the Hungarian Heritage House ticket listing, dates checked 8 November 2026.

Fitting it into a trip

A subtitled film is the easiest wet-evening plan in the city; our rainy day guide has the daytime half, and the Budapest at night guide the rest of the evening. If you want the big screen without any dialogue, Cinema Mystica is a light-and-sound walk-through rather than a film, and for a gray afternoon before the show, our museums guide ranks the city’s museums by the time they take.