The UK-Ireland box office experienced an excellent April, up 65% on 2024 with over £100m revenue across the month.
The year-to-date is now 13% ahead of 2024, after a weak March gave back the gains made in a decent January and February. Year-to-date is also 9% ahead of 2023; and five of the last six months have now shown year-on-year growth, indicating that the post-pandemic and post-strikes recovery continues. Figures are from Comscore.
| Rank | Title (origin) | Distributor | Release date | April total | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Minecraft Movie (US) | Warner Bros | 4/4/25 | £52m | £52m |
| 2 | Sinners (US) | Warner Bros | 18/4/25 | £8.7m | £8.7m |
| 3 | Six The Musical (UK) |
Universal | 4/4/25 | £5.6m | £5.6m |
| 4 | The Amateur (US) |
Disney | 11/4/25 | £4m | £4m |
| 5 | Snow White (US) | Disney | 21/3/25 | £3.9m | £11.3m |
| 6 | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith (Re: 2025) (US) | Disney | 25/4/25 | £2.5m | £2.5m |
| 7 | The Penguin Lessons (Ire-Sp-UK-US) | Lionsgate | 18/4/25 | £2.4m | £2.4m |
| 8 | Warfare (UK-US) |
A24 | 18/4/25 | £1.8m | £1.8m |
| 9 | Death Of A Unicorn (US) | EFD | 4/4/25 | £1.4m | £1.4m |
| 10 | The Accountant 2 (US) | Warner Bros | 25/4/25 | £1.3m | £1.3m |
Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie dominated the April chart, taking over £52m in the date range (April 4-May 1) – over half of the total box office takings (£100.1m).
Jared Hess’s action-adventure is the highest-grossing release of the year, ahead of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (£46.3m), and is on track to surpass The Super Mario Bros. Movie (£54.9m) to become the highest-grossing videogame adaptation ever.
Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror Sinners took the number two spot after just two weeks on release, with £8.7m, also for Warner Bros. It has topped the £5.8m of Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan’s Creed from 2016, and should catch the £10m of Creed 2 before the end of its run. Imax takings have been especially strong, with the BFI Imax venue taking £266,393 from its opening 10 days and previews, with the only 70mm Imax print of the film outside of the US.
Universal’s event cinema title Six The Musical took third place with £5.6m – the highest-grossing event cinema release of the year, and now second highest-grossing of all time, overtaking Prima Facie – NT Live 2022 (£5.4m) and behind only Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (£12.2m).
Only one March holdover made the top 10 for April, again demonstrating the link between a strong slate of new releases and good box office performance. That title was Disney’s Snow White starring Rachel Zegler, which took £3.9m for the month, and has £11.2m in total.
Two independent titles made the list: Alex Garland’s Warfare in eighth place with £1.8m, released by A24; and comedy Death Of A Unicorn in ninth with £1.4m, released by Entertainment Film Distributors.
Disney and Universal still dominate the year-to-date top 10, with four titles for Disney including Captain America: Brave New World (£18m cume) and three for Universal including Dog Man (£13.6m).
A decent May slate offers hope to exhibitors of keeping the good run going. Disney will hope the refreshed cast of Thunderbolts* and good reviews will bring in audiences (opened yesterday, May 1). Warner Bros opens horror franchise title Final Destination: Bloodlines on May 14, with the top title in that franchise currently 2009’s The Final Destination on £12.8m; before two blockbusters land on Wednesday 21 – Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch.
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