The UK and Irish box office has bounced back impressively since the Covid pandemic. In 2025, it recorded a total of £1.07 billion, a slight increase from £1.06 billion in 2024. Interestingly, the number of films released this year fell to 1,092, down from 1,124 the previous year.
This recovery marks the best performance since 2019, which brought in £1.35 billion before the pandemic’s impact. The box office took a massive hit in 2020, dropping to just £323.7 million. Gradually, revenues climbed back to £595.5 million in 2021 and reached £980.7 million in 2022. Only in 2023 did it surpass the £1 billion mark again.
Despite fewer releases this year, the industry seems to be on the upswing. The production pipeline is starting to recover from pandemic disruptions and industry strikes in 2023. In fact, 2025 saw 224 films classified as “saturation” releases, which means they were shown in over 250 venues. This is up from 200 in 2024 and 188 in 2019.
The standout film of 2025 was A Minecraft Movie, which grossed £56.88 million. Its popularity was driven by viral moments, like the “chicken jockey” scene. While it also topped box office charts in North America with $423.9 million, it ranked fifth globally, trailing behind the animated hit Ne Zha 2, which earned an impressive $2.24 billion.
Among British films, the fourth Bridget Jones movie, subtitled Mad About the Boy, performed well too, grossing £46.4 million—easily surpassing other releases like Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and 28 Years Later.
There’s also a noteworthy trend towards “event cinema.” This category, which includes films tied to live events, raked in £44 million (about 4.1% of total box office earnings). Notably, the stage production film Six the Musical achieved £6.2 million, although it still falls short of the record set by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in 2023, which grossed £12.3 million.
Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, shared a sense of optimism: “Although it saw only a small year-on-year increase in box office, 2025 undoubtedly marked a significant further step in the sector’s recovery following the challenges of recent years. There is great optimism that the coming months will see significant further progress.”
For more insights on box office trends and performance, check out Comscore’s latest reports.
