Cinema revenue across Britain and Ireland has posted its strongest annual performance in the post-Covid era, with A Minecraft Movie closing out 2025 as the top-earning film of the year.
Statistics published by experts show that cinema takings in the UK and Ireland amounted to £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 steep decline of the physical cinema box office the following year, to £323.7m, as Covid restrictions hit hard. Cinema revenues bounced back to £595.5m in 2021, and £980.7m in 2022, only surpassing £1bn in 2023, with a total of £1.06bn.
The numbers of films on release suggest that the production pipeline, hit both by the pandemic and subsequent film industry strikes in 2023, has recovered. It is, in fact, exceeding pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, 938 films were released.
Significantly however, a recalibration of strategy appears to be taking place. In 2025, 224 films were recorded as “saturation” releases (playing in over 250 venues simultaneously), against 200 in 2024 and 188 in 2019. Data indicates that Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale had the widest opening in the UK in 2025, in more than 750 cinemas.
The highest grossing film of 2025 in the UK and Ireland was the game-to-screen translation A Minecraft Movie. Its online buzz, including the “chicken jockey” scene, has translated into box office the top spot, with a total of £56.88m.
“Despite only a slight annual rise in box office, 2025 clearly represented a significant further step in the sector’s recovery after the challenges of recent years. There is great optimism that the coming months will see notable additional gains.”
The film also led the 2025 North American box office but came in fifth at the worldwide box office, far below the global leader, the Chinese animation Ne Zha 2.
Among domestic features, the fourth Bridget Jones film, Mad About the Boy, finished the year as the most successful at the UK and Irish box office, taking £46.4m. It came far in front of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale and 28 Years Later in second and third place.
The figures also revealed the ongoing popularity 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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