UK box office figures for Q1 2025 paint a mixed picture, with revenue slightly up, admissions slightly down, record market share for UK-qualifying films led by Universal’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, and a struggle for UK independent titles.
According to the BFI’s Research and Statistics Unit, there were 28.3m UK cinema admissions from January to March (Q1) this year – two percent lower than Q1 2024 and 24% down on Q1 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year.
Box office revenue across the same period came in at £231.6m – up four percent on Q1 2024 (£221.9m), and down 12% on Q1 2019 (£264m).
UK-qualifying films recorded their highest Q1 market share ever this year at 54.2%. This was boosted by the performance of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which was the highest-grossing of all films in Q1 with £46.2m.
UK independent films recorded a 10.7% Q1 market share, down from 13.5% in 2024. Studiocanal’s We Live In Time was by far the top performer in this bracket, with £8.8m – more than double the £3.8m of the next title, Universal’s Focus Features release The Brutalist. Figures are provided by CAA and Comscore.
Admissions
The two percent admissions decrease across Q1 falls largely on March, with January and February up 8% (10.4m) and 12% (11.2m) respectively on 2024. February was the highest monthly admissions of any Q1 month since the pandemic, again boosted by the February 13 opening of Universal’s Mad About The Boy, which took £31m in the month for 33% of the total UK box office.
| Month | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | % change on 2024 | % change on 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 13.7m | 16.5m | - | 8.2m | 8.6m | 9.6m | 10.4m | +8.4 | -24 |
| February | 12.2m | 14.5m | - | 11.1m | 9.2m | 10m | 11.2m | +11.7 | -8.5 |
| March | 11.4m | 4.8m | - | 8.4m | 8.2m | 9.2m | 6.7m | -27.4 | -41.4 |
| Q1 total | 37.4m | 35.9m | - | 27.8m | 26m | 28.8m | 28.3m | -1.9 | -24.4 |
March admissions were down a hefty 27% on the previous year to 6.7m – just 60% of February’s total, and down 41% on the 11.4m of March 2019. This was caused by a lack of strong new releases, with Mad About The Boy the top grossing title for a second consecutive month with £11.5m; and Disney’s Snow White as the top March release with just £6.5m by the end of the month.
January and February recorded the highest post-pandemic admissions figures for those months; while March saw the lowest admissions of any post-pandemic month except September 2021 and 2022 (both 6.5m). This indicates that audiences are willing to keep coming back to cinemas, but only for a strong release slate.
Box office
Although total box office for Q1 2025 was up by four percent, this was boosted by the presence of several strong 2024 holdover releases, including Wicked, Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King.
For the 242 Comscore-reported 2025 film releases, UK-Ireland box office was £187.3m – down 14% on £216.8m from 242 releases in Q1 2024, and down 25% from the £250m from just 188 releases in Q1 2019. The indication is that more films are landing in cinemas post-pandemic - but are taking less money.
| Rank | Title (origin) | Distributor | Gross (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (UK-US) | Universal | 46.2m |
| 2 | Captain America: Brave New World (US) | Disney | 18m |
| 3 | Dog Man (US-US) | Universal | 13.5m |
| 4 | Nosferatu (US) | Universal | 13m |
| 5 | A Complete Unknown (US) | Disney | 12.3m |
| 6 | Snow White (US-UK) |
Disney | 9.1m |
| 7 | We Live In Time (UK) | Studiocanal | 8.8m |
| 8 | Mickey 17 (UK-US-S Kor) | Warner Bros | 7m |
| 9 | Babygirl (US) | EFD | 4.5m |
| 10 | The Brutalist (UK-US-Hun) |
Universal | 3.8m |
| Total | 136.2m |
Five of the top 10 highest-grossing 2025 releases were sequels, remakes or pre-existing franchise titles, including Captain America: Brave New World (£18m), Dog Man (£13.5m) and Nosferatu (£13m), numbers two-to-four in the chart.
These were complemented by non-sequel, remake or pre-existing franchise titles such as A Complete Unknown (£12.3m), Mickey 17 (£7m) and Babygirl (£4.5m).
The top 10 titles contributed £136.2m of Q1 revenue this year, at 73% - almost level with the 72% from last year, but up on the 68% of 2019, indicating a slight move towards the higher-earning films and away from smaller fare.
UK qualifiers
UK-qualifying films – films that pass the applicable cultural test or qualify as a UK co-production – had a strong quarter with 54.2% market share.
| Rank | Film (origin) | Distributor | Gross (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (UK-US) | Universal | 46.2m |
| 2 | Dog Man (US-UK) |
Universal | 13.5m |
| 3 | Snow White (US-UK) |
Disney | 9.1m |
| 4 | We Live In Time (UK) |
Studiocanal | 8.8m |
| 5 | Mickey 17 (UK-US-S Kor) |
Warner Bros | 7m |
| 6 | The Brutalist (UK-US-Hun) | Universal | 3.8m |
| 7 | Black Bag (US-UK) | Universal | 3.7m |
| 8 | Marching Powder (UK) |
True Brit | 3m |
| 9 | A Working Man (US-UK) | Warner Bros | 1.7m |
| 10 | Becoming Led Zeppelin (UK-US) |
Sony | 1.1m |
| Total | £98m |
Alongside Mad About The Boy, Universal’s children’s animation Dog Man (which did animation at the UK’s Jellyfish Pictures), Snow White (which filmed in the UK) and Universal’s Black Bag (which also shot ih the UK) all registered as UK-qualifying under the relevant metrics. The top 10 UK-qualifying titles brought in £98m, a 97% share of all UK-qualifying films in the quarter – on a par with both 2024 and 2019.
While the market share for all UK-qualifying films was up, for independent UK titles it dropped 21%, from 13.5% last year to 10.7% this year; and is down 57% on 2019’s 24.8%.
Independent UK titles contributed £19.2m across this period – down 34% on last year’s £29.1m, when One Life (£10m) was the top independent title; and down a huge 68% on 2019’s £59.7m, when The Favourite (£16.9m) led the way. Six of the top 10 UK independent films in Q1 2025 were international co-productions, including The Brutalist, Sony documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, and Studiocanal’s Mike Leigh drama Hard Truths.
| Rank | Film (origin) | Distributor | Gross (£) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | We Live In Time (UK) | Studiocanal | 8.8m |
| 2 | The Brutalist (UK-US-Hun) |
Universal | 3.8m |
| 3 | Marching Powder (UK) | True Brit | 3.0m |
| 4 | Becoming Led Zeppelin (UK-US) | Sony | 1.1m |
| 5 | Hard Truths (UK-Sp) |
Studiocanal | 900,000 |
| 6 | Last Breath (UK-US) | EFD | 800,000 |
| 7 | Tiddler (UK) | Magic Light Pictures | 300,000 |
| 8 | Bring Them Down (UK-Ire-Bel) | Mubi | 200,000 |
| 9 | Twiggy (UK) | Studio Soho | 200,000 |
| 10 | Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story (UK-Ire) | Modern Films | 200,000 |
| Total | £19.2m |
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