Ticket sales at the 2025 UK-Ireland box office increased by 1% year-on-year to hit £1.1bn in 2025.
The marginal increase drove the market to its strongest post-pandemic year to date. Before 2020, the annual box office had exceeded £1.3bn in each of the five years up to 2019. While the current box office remains 21% behind 2019, 2025 was the third consecutive post-pandemic year to pass £1.06bn, according to Comscore.
| Title (origin) | Distributor | Release date | 3/1/25-1/1/26 total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Minecraft Movie (US) | Warner Bros | 4/4/25 | £56.9m |
| 2 | Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (UK-US) | Universal | 14/2/25 | £46.4m |
| 3 | Wicked: For Good (US) | Universal | 21/11/25 | £45.9m |
| 4 | Lilo & Stitch (US) | Disney | 23/5/25 | £37.3m |
| 5 | Jurassic World Rebirth (US) | Universal | 4/7/25 | £35.9m |
| 6 | Superman (US) | Warner Bros | 11/7/25 | £28.1m |
| 7 | Avatar: Fire And Ash (US) | Disney | 19/12/25 | £27.1m |
| 8 | Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (US) | Paramount | 23/5/25 | £26.3m |
| 9 | Zootropolis 2 (US) | Disney | 28/11/25 | £25.4m |
| 10 | The Fantastic Four: First Steps (US) | Disney | 25/7/25 | £23.9m |
The highest-grossing film of the year was Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie, with £56.9m. This is behind 2024’s top two best performers, Inside Out 2 (Disney, £59.2m) and Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney, £57.6m), and ranks it at number 35 in the all-time list for top UK-Ireland box office performers.
In 2025’s second place, and the highest-grossing UK-produced film of the year, was Universal’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy at £46.4m.
The top 10 films accounted for 33% of 2025’s total revenue. In 2024, a larger 38.6% of ticket sales came from the top 10 films. This figure was 40.5% in 2023 and 43.8% in 2022. This suggests 2025 saw a more diverse array of films in the market and less reliance on a small group of titles.
2025 saw the highest ever number of saturation releases (playing at more than 250 venues), at 224, led by Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale that opened in over 750 cinemas for Universal in September. The total number of titles released in UK-Ireland cinemas has exceeded 1,000 for each of the last three years.
A major 2025 challenge came at the end of the year, competing with a strong fourth quarter of 2024, which grossed almost £325m in total. November and December of 2024 delivered six of 2024’s top 10 films, led by Wicked.
In 2025, three November and December releases ranked in the top 10: Universal’s For Good, Disney’s Avatar: Fire And Ash and Disney’s Zootropolis 2. However, December 2025’s total box office was down 10% from 2024.
Universal leads
Universal was the best-performing distributor for the first time since 2021, achieving a market share of 25.1% (up from 19.5% last year) and a total gross of £269m. Disney was second (market share of 23.1%, total gross of £247m) and Warner Bros third (market share of 18.5%, total gross of £197m). Studiocanal was the leading European distributor, in seventh place, with a 2.7% market share.
Of the five nations of the UK-Ireland territory, England, Wales and Scotland were all in line with the national picture, 1% higher than 2024. However, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which jointly contribute one-tenth of the territory’s total box office, both dropped year-on-year by 8% and 7% respectively (in local currency).
In event cinema, 2025 saw 10 releases grossing over £1m for the second consecutive year, delivering the second-highest annual total from event cinema of £44m, behind only 2019.
Universal’s Six The Musical became the biggest-ever theatre title (£6.2m), ahead of the original 2022 release of National Theatre Live’s Prima Facie – NT Live (£5.5m), and the second-highest overall event cinema release after Trafalgar’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert (£12.3m).
No comments yet