UK-Ireland box office rises 10% in January 2025 compared to previous year, boosted by ‘Nosferatu’, ‘A Complete Unknown’

UK-Ireland box office for January 2025 was up 10% on the same period from the previous year, boosted by new releases Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown.

The five-week period from January 3 to February 6, 2025 brought in £94.1m, compared to £85.2m in 2024, according to figures from Comscore. This was pushed by an especially strong start to the month, that saw the first week up 36% and second week up 22%.

This is the third consecutive month when takings have been up on the year before, having been up a huge 95% in November 2024, then 21% up in December.

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu was the highest-grossing film of the month with £12.6m. Released on January 1, it scored a strong £3.1m opening weekend, and is currently the sixth-highest-grossing horror release of all time in the territory – and highest for distributor Universal.

January releases A Complete Unknown (January 17, £9.1m) and We Live In Time (January 1, £8.4m) took third and fourth place for the month, sandwiched between December holdovers Mufasa: The Lion King (£12.1m) in second and Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (£8.1m) in fifth.

Universal’s Wicked landed in the top 10 chart for the third month in a row, adding £4.9m in the allotted period despite being made available for digital download at the start of the month. It is the highest-grossing release of 2024 with £60.7m, and the 27^th-highest-grossing of all time, ahead of Oppenheimer (£59.7m).

Takings dropped towards the middle of the month – still up 3% in week three and 2% in week four, but down 15% compared to last year for the week beginning January 31. The UK & Ireland posted a 6% share of the worldwide market for the first three weeks of the year; that fell to 2% for the past two weeks, averaging out at 4% across the month.

In a positive sign for exhibition, the 10% increase on last year came despite Wonka playing 12 months ago and adding £11m. Figures were also up 12% on the equivalent period in 2023, when Avatar: The Way Of Water added £21.8m.

Global film tech company Gower Street Analytics is forecasting £180.6m UK and Ireland box office for January and February combined – a healthy 14% rise on the first two calendar months of 2024.

However, Gower Street’s forecast for Q1 (January, February and March combined) is £253.4m – a slim 4% rise on 2024, which was boosted by Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two. In other words, a strong February 2025 for UK and Ireland cinemas looks set to be balanced out by a relatively weak March. [Gower Street forecasts are for actual calendar months, not equivalent week periods].

Although the end of January/start of February has been slow, cinemas will have high hopes for Universal’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy from February 13, with two chains reporting pre-sales above the levels of those for Barbie.

Other new titles for February include Universal animation Dog Man, out today (February 7); Disney’s Captain America: Brave New World on February 13; and The Monkey, the latest film from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins, through Black Bear on February 21.

Charles Gant provided additional reporting for this story.

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