British and Irish Box Office Revenue Reach a Post-Pandemic High as The Minecraft Film Leads the Year's Charts

Cinema revenue across Britain and Ireland has recorded its best annual performance in the post-Covid era, with A Minecraft Movie ending 2025 as the top-earning film of the year.

A Steady Recovery in Revenue

Figures released by box-office analysts show that ticket sales in the UK and Ireland totalled £1.07bn. This shows growth of 1% on 2024’s total of £1.06bn. Concurrently, there was a slight decrease in the number of films released: 1,092 in 2025, against 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 exceeding £1bn in 2023, with a total of £1.06bn.

Industry Rebound and Strategic Shift

The numbers of films on release suggest that the movie-making engine, hit both by the pandemic and subsequent film industry strikes in 2023, has regained strength. It is, in fact, topping pre-pandemic levels; in 2019, 938 films were released.

Notably, though, a change in approach appears to be taking place. In 2025, 224 films were recorded as “saturation” releases (playing in over 250 venues simultaneously), compared with 200 in 2024 and 188 in 2019. Data indicates that Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale had the biggest debut in the UK in 2025, across 750 cinemas.

The Year's Top Film

The highest grossing film of 2025 in the UK and Ireland was the video game movie A Minecraft Movie. Its viral impact, notably from the “chicken jockey” scene, has translated into box office supremacy, with a total of £56.88m.

“Despite only a slight annual rise in box office, 2025 clearly represented a major milestone in the sector’s recovery after the challenges of recent years. There is considerable hope that the coming months will see significant further progress.”

The film also led the 2025 North American box office but finished fifth at the worldwide box office, well behind the global leader, the Chinese animation Ne Zha 2.

Homegrown Hits and Event Cinema

Among British productions, 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 highlighted 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.