UK-Ireland box office for 2026 passes totals of every post-pandemic year

The UK-Ireland box office for 2026 has topped the totals of every post-pandemic year, with eight weeks still to go.

According to figures shared by Rentrak on Friday, November 6, the annual box office has reached £1.07bn, ahead of a lower £1.07bn across all of 2025.

It also beats the annual figures from 2024 (£1.06bn), 2023 (£1.06bn), 2022 (£981m) and 2021 (£598m).

Comparing the same points in the year, 2026 is running 22% ahead of 2025, and 31% ahead of 2024. With a strong slate to come in the final eight weeks, cinemas will hope to challenges the £1.35bn of the final full pre-pandemic year in 2019.

The figures were boosted by another strong month in October, which brought in £100.6m, 35% higher than the £74.4m in October 2025.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Verity starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson led the way in the month with £11.8m, with distribution handled by Sony. It is the second highest-grossing of four Colleen Hoover adaptations behind It Ends With Us (£21.9m), and its £3.4m start beat the openings of thrillers including The Housemaid (£3.1m) and Don’t Worry Darling (£2.7m).

UK comedy spinoff Ghosts: The Possession Of Button House took second place for Lionsgate with £7m in the month, from a £2.4m opening weekend. With its most recent weekend takings it became the second-highest-grossing UK-only feature of the year behind The Magic Faraway Tree (£15.1m).

The month displayed a broad variety of titles, with videogame adaptation Street Fighter, horror Other Mommy, superhero film Clayface and family animation Forgotten Island takings spots three through six.

It was also a solid month for UK titles beyond Ghosts, with Georgia Oakley’s Sense And Sensibility in ninth place, and Wicker in 10^th – both US-UK co-productions.

Universal had three titles in the top 10 for the month, with two each for Sony and Paramount, and one for Lionsgate, Warner Bros and Black Bear.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day leads the annual chart with £100.3m as the third-highest-grossing film of all time, with The Odyssey second for 2026 and 10^th overall. Universal has four films in the annual list, with two each for Sony and Disney, and one for Warner Bros and Lionsgate.

Looking to extend the annual total towards the 2019 mark in November are Bollywood action title Ramayana: Rise Of A Legend, which topped the charts for Sony this past weekend. Christmas titles kick in with Paramount’s A Christmas Carol adaptation Ebenezer from November 13, while Lionsgate returns to Panem with The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping from November 18. A24 will look to replicate the extraordinary performance of Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything from November 20, before the month rounds out with Paramount comedy Focker-In-Law and animation Disney’s Hexed from November 27.

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