UK-Ireland box office flattens in November, down 33% year-on-year

November box office takings in the UK & Ireland fell 33% compared to last year, as the year-to-date remains fractionally ahead of 2024.

Box office revenue for November 2025 was £85m, down on the strong £127.9m from November 2024. The year-to-date is at £965m, 2% ahead of 2024 and less than 1% behind 2023.

Universal sequel Wicked: For Good provided the brightest spark last month. It grossed £34.4m, including a £17.8m opening weekend – the biggest since Barbie in summer 2023.

For Good is currently tracking 6% ahead of last year’s Wicked; and is the fifth-highest-grossing title of the year, behind Jurassic World Rebirth (£35.9m), Lilo & Stitch (£37.3m), Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (£46.4m) and A Minecraft Movie (£56.9m).

For 2025 to finish ahead of 2024, cinemas will need a strong showing from Disney’s Avatar: Fire And Ash from December 19, but also support from Universal’s Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, which opened this weekend, and awards titles such as Entertainment Film Distributors’ Marty Supreme and Mubi’s Sentimental Value, both on December 26.

Disney sequel Zootropolis 2 was the second-highest-grossing title in November with £7.5m – a contrast to November 2024, when Paddington In Peru and Gladiator 2 took second and third spots with £27.7m and £24.8m respectively.

Zootropolis 2 opened to £5.9m – the biggest for an animated title this year, and ahead of the £3.6m start of Zootropolis from 2016. That film went on to £24m; the sequel will likely need to top that if the overall box office is going to stay ahead of last year.

November’s top titles were evenly shared across distributors, with two each for Universal, Disney, Paramount and Sony; and one each for Lionsgate – number three title Now You See Me: Now You Don’t with £5.8m - and Studiocanal – Nuremberg, with £2.9m.

Only two October holdovers made it into the November top 10: Paramount romantic drama Regretting You, with £1.8m in the month and £6.3m overall; and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Universal title Bugonia, with £1.5m in the month and £3m overall.

Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral was the only UK title to make the November top 10, with £3.9m for Sony, while Bridget Jones remains the only UK title in the year-to-date top 10.

• Jessica Alba reveals new Robert Rodriguez, Haifaa Al Mansour film collaborations