Cinema revenue across Britain and Ireland has recorded its best annual performance in the post-Covid era, with A Minecraft Movie finishing 2025 as the top-earning film of the year.
Data from industry analysts show that cinema takings in the UK and Ireland totalled £1.07bn. This marks a rise of 1% on 2024’s total of £1.06bn. Concurrently, there was a small drop in the number of films released: 1,092 in 2025, compared with 1,124 in 2024.
This result is the highest total since 2019, which saw £1.35bn in total revenue. That was shortly before the collapse of the physical cinema box office the following year, to £323.7m, as Covid restrictions hit hard. Cinema revenues recovered to £595.5m in 2021, and £980.7m in 2022, only exceeding £1bn in 2023, with a total of £1.06bn.
The volume of cinematic releases suggest that the film production cycle, affected by the pandemic and subsequent film industry strikes in 2023, has rebounded. It is, in fact, surpassing pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, 938 films were released.
Importantly, however, a change in approach appears to be taking place. In 2025, 224 films were recorded as “saturation” releases (playing in over 250 venues simultaneously), versus 200 in 2024 and 188 in 2019. Data indicates that Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale had the largest launch in the UK in 2025, across 750 cinemas.
The top-earning film of 2025 in the UK and Ireland was the game-to-screen translation A Minecraft Movie. Its online buzz, featuring the “chicken jockey” scene, has resulted in box office supremacy, with a total of £56.88m.
“Despite only a slight annual rise in box office, 2025 undoubtedly marked a significant further step in the sector’s recovery following the challenges of recent years. There is strong confidence that the coming months will see notable additional gains.”
The film also dominated the 2025 North American box office but came in fifth at the worldwide box office, trailing the global leader, the Chinese animation Ne Zha 2.
Among UK-made films, the fourth Bridget Jones film, Mad About the Boy, was the most successful at the UK and Irish box office, taking £46.4m. It came well ahead of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and 28 Years Later in second and third place.
The figures also revealed the continuing strength of “event cinema” releases, which took a total of £44m (4.1% of the total). This category included 10 films earning more than £1m. Among these was the best ever performance for a stage production; the film of the West End production Six the Musical amassed £6.2m.
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