- Zootropolis 2 £2,767,509 – £15,531,866
Down 34.7% in its third weekend
£442k 15.97% (-24.2% 583k) Fri; £1.24m 44a.8% (-32.24% £1.83m) Sat; £1.1m 39.21% (-57.5% £1.82m) Sun
138th biggest third weekend between Captain America: Civil War and Migration (close to Mamma Mia!, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, The Lion King (1994) and Fantastic Beasts 2) and 263rd inflated third weekend between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Evita (close to About A Boy, Nanny McPhee, The Beach and Bruce Almighty).
34th biggest animation third weekend between Shrek and Migration (close to Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Ice Age III, Despicable Me and Chicken Run) and 53rd biggest inflated animation third weekend between Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Migration (close to Ice Age II, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Shaun The Sheep Movie and Antz).
5th biggest Disney animation third weekend between Wreck-It Ralph (£3,420,196) and The Lion King (1994) (£2,715,201) (close to Zootropolis, Tangled, Big Hero 6 and The Princess And The Frog) and 9th biggest Disney inflated animation third weekend between Lilo & Stitch (2002) (£2,829,958) and Tarzan (£2,595,428) (close to Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast (1992), Tangled and Mulan).
2016’s Zootropolis dropped 13.5% £2,365,457/£2,544,223 and £18,607,656 78.2% of £23,461,047/£25,075,775
2024’s Moana 2 dropped 47.7% £3,613,290 and £26,452,825 62.45% of £42,357,963
The 15th biggest 2025 film between Thunderbolts and 28 Years Later (close to The Conjuring: Last Rites, Sinners, The Bad Guys 2 and Downton Abbey 3) has become the biggest animated film in 2025, ahead of Dog Man (£13.88m) and The Bad Guys 2 (£14.64m).
455th biggest between The Second-Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and 28 Years Later (close to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Basic Instinct and The Great Gatsby) and 761st biggest inflated between Downton Abbey: A New Era and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (close to Dick Tracy, Die Hard 2 Die Harder, Pitch Perfect 3 and Miracle on 34th Street).
87th biggest animated film between Gnomeo and Juliet and Aladdin (close to Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars, Ice Age and The Good Dinosaur) and 116th biggest inflated animated film between Rise of the Guardians and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (close to The Little Mermaid (1990), The Jungle Book (1993 re-issue), The Princess And The Frog and Bee Movie).
Zootropolis 2 faces competition from The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants from Saturday (has a 9-day opening weekend), so likely to have a bigger drop since opening despite it being the start of the Christmas holidays. But, being the Christmas holidays, Zootropolis 2 could double its box office by 4th January, as Spongebob Movie will play to a younger audience.
- Wicked: For Good £1,856,430 – £40,724,713
Down 42.4% in its fourth weekend
£375k 20.2% (-46.2% £697k) Fri; £769k 41.43% (-41.74% £1.3m) Sat; £712k 38.36% (-65.79% £1.21m) Sun
124th biggest fourth weekend between Toy Story and Aquaman (close to Arthur Christmas, Meet the Fockers, Happy Feet and La La Land) and 243rd biggest inflated fourth weekend between Rain Man and Sex and the City (close to Back to the Future Part II, The Others, Kindergarten Cop and Jumanji)
9th biggest musical fourth weekend between Chicago and La La Land (close to A Star Is Born, The Greatest Showman, Moulin Rouge and Evita) and 12th biggest inflated musical fourth weekend between La La Land and The Commitments (close to Les Misérables, High School Musical 3, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical and Hairspray).
After 25 days on release, Wicked For Good is the 3rd biggest film of 2025 between Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy and Lilo & Stitch.
89th biggest between Les Misérables and Indiana Jones …The Crystal Skull (close to Bridget Jones’s Diary, Peter Rabbit, Inside Out and Fifty Shades of Grey); 91st £40m+ BO since 1993’s Jurassic Park
186th biggest inflated between Aladdin (2019) and Goldeneye (close to The Bodyguard, Batman (1989), Sex and the City and Mission: Impossible).
As with Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy earlier in the year, Wicked: For Good received positive reviews, massive media coverage, hype and an opening bigger than the previous film, but both have had much softer legs, and both have come short of expectations at the start of the year.
Ahead of opening, Mad About The Boy was expected to easily top £50m and Wicked: For Good to top £70m, but Mad About The Boy struggled to get to £46m, and Wicked: For Good will struggle to top Mad About The Boy. Why have both films struggled to meet their expectations? They weren’t as good as their hype and as good as previous films.
2025’s Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy dropped 50.1% £2,059,532 and £40,398,810, 87.13% of £46,367,473
Wicked: For Good will be released on VOD in early January as the first film, so exhibitors can’t blame the theatrical window.
Wicked is the Mamma Mia! of millennial theatre audiences: since opening in 2006, it has become the 10th-longest-running show in West End history, seen by 13 million people, with more than 7,400 performances and over £115m in UK ticket sales. The Broadway production has topped $1bn.
Fourth weekends
2023’s Wonka dropped 7.5% £6,672,464 #1 and £43,822,435 69.2% of £63,277,138
2018’s Mary Poppins Returns dropped 49% £2,256,418 #3 and £38,242,693 86% of £44,541,719
2013’s Les Miserables dropped 30.7% £2,785,143/£3,399,325 and £30,137,493 73.8% of £40,818,299/£49,819,578
2008’s Mamma Mia! Dropped 31.9% £3,167,377/£4,854,614 and £32,109,923 47.1% of £68,116,092/£104,401,010.
2018’s A Star Is Born dropped 25.4% £2,150,987 and £19,238,711 65.7% of £29,299,129/£32,342,667
2017’s The Greatest Showman dropped 1.8% £2,103,605/£2,238,415 and £16,865,309 34.1% of £49,523,728/£52,697,478
While 2024’s Wicked dropped 35% £3,455,827 and £43,634,853, 71.95% of £60,649,197
They all took more than Wicked For Good in their fourth weekends, and Moulin Rouge and Evita took in more.
2001’s Moulin Rouge dropped 12.8% £1,337,411/£2,574,678 and £10,636,791 59.1% of £17,934,410/£34,525,905
1997’s Evita dropped 20.7% £1,119,052/£2,191,362 and £9,858,113 69.2% of £14,237,881/£27,881,059
Showing the lack of interest in Wicked: For Good singles from the film have dropped heavily in the charts over the last few weeks, with For Good #95 the only song in the top 100 now, the soundtrack album, of course, is top of the soundtrack albums with Wicked #3. (Incredibly, The Greatest Showman is still in the top 10 chart in its 408th week of release); while Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me #11
- Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 £1,016,400 – £5,280,982
Down 68.8% in its second weekend
£279k 27.5% (-80.35% £1.4m) Friday; £424k 41.7% (-60.74% £1.1m) Sat; £313k 30.8% (-58.6% £756k) Sun
1,110th biggest second weekend between The Equaliser 3 and Open Season (close to Chronicle, The Accountant, The Day the Earth Stood Still and A Simple Favour) and 1,675th biggest inflated second weekend between Lady Bird and See How They Run (close to Super Mario Brothers (1993), Edge Of Darkness, Red Heat and From Hell).
32nd biggest 2025 second weekend between Karate Kid: Legends and M3GAN 2.0 (close to Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, The Naked Gun, Freakier Friday and Predator: Badlands).
2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s dropped 74.5% £1,374,000 and £8,712,935 of £10,472,999
As 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s was a surprise hit, but like Blumhouse Pictures’ previous sequels this year, M3GAN 2.0 and The Black Phone 2, it opened much less than the original film and was very front-loaded. 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s opened £5,379,587 (including £2,165,447 (40.25%) from previews) taking £10,472,999
Horrors have strongly performed this year, but the problem with horrors like Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 they are PG-13 and get 15s in the UK, meaning some of the film’s audience can’t legally see the film in the cinema, one of the reasons they don’t perform as strongly in the UK as in the US. The BBFC will give tentpole PG-13 films lower 12A certificates, but then horror PG-13s the more restrictive 15.
- Dhurandhar £593,726 – £1,230,944
Took £152k 25.63% Friday: £222k 37.44% Saturday; £219k 36.93% Sunday
Up 93.8% from last weekend unusual for a Bollywood film to increase in its second weekend, as they are normally front-loaded.
It’s the fifth Indian film in 2025 to take over £1m; only Saiyaara (£3.21m) and L2: Empuraan (£1.38m) have taken more. It was playing in only 135 screens, having the best screen average in the top 10.
- Fackham Hall £407,006 – NE
Took £117k 28.75% Friday; £153k 37.59% Saturday; £137k 33.66% Sunday
70th biggest opening of 2025 between Nobody 2 and Drop (Novocaine, M3GAN 2.0, Alto Knights and The Strangers: Chapter 2)
It’s been described as a spoof that crosses Downton Abbey with Airplane! and Monty Python. The problem with most of these parody films they aren’t as funny as they believe, as a similar 1997 British comedy, Stiff Upper Lips, was spoofing Merchant Ivory period dramas.
As seen with the recent poorly critically received Christmas Karma, which opened £487,528, taking £1.1m over 4 weeks, Fackham Hall might still have a chance to do similar over the Christmas holidays if it can hold on to its screens, as seen over previous years, films you wouldn’t normally expect to find an audience do.
This weekend is a perfect case study in the broken theatrical model, as five new films opened in the UK last weekend. All underperformed. All will be pulled from most screens this weekend to make room for Avatar 3. Yet, contractually, they must still ‘play out’ their 31+ day theatrical window—now confined to a handful of off-peak, empty showtimes.
Along with Fackham Hall opening with £407,006, Silent Night, Deadly Night opened £183,191 #8; The Shining (45th Anniversary) £181,116 #11; Ella McCay £82,377 #18; Lurker £19,980 #42; Eleanor The Great £16,460 #46
This isn’t an exhibition; it’s theatrical purgatory. Why would Netflix—or any studio—agree to this for a non-tentpole film? You’re forced into a window where you’re invisible after Week 1, but still locked out of streaming for a month. It’s the worst of both worlds: no audience in cinemas, no audience at home.
Until the window adapts to how audiences actually discover films—not just how blockbusters open—these ‘deals will remain a trap. The problem isn’t Netflix saying no. It’s the industry insisting on a one-size-fits-all model that only fits one kind of film.”
Also opened
• Ella McCay – Disney
Opened £82,377 #18 from 400 screens
Ella McCay is the latest film from James L. Brooks, as his other films feature a strong ensemble cast, including Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Rebecca Hall, Albert Brooks, and Woody Harrelson.
In 2023, it was announced that James L. Brooks would direct his first film since 2010’s How Do You Know and the seventh film he has directed since 1983’s Terms of Endearment, winning Best Picture and Best Director.
James L. Brooks has mixed success with the films he has directed since 1987’s Broadcast News and 1997’s As Good as It Gets received critical acclaim, Oscar nominations and were box office hits, but then 1994’s I’ll Do Anything, 2004’s Spanglish and 2010’s How Do You Know were critical and box office misfires.
But as producer of 1988’s Big, 1989’s The War of the Roses and 1996’s Jerry Maguire and The Simpsons since 1989, he still can make the films he wants to make; that said, aged 86 now, Ella McCay is sadly likely to be the last film he will direct. It was probably part of the deal to make The Simpsons 2 a film that 20th Century Fox has been trying to make for 18 years.
1988’s Broadcast News opened £128,836/£443,644 63 screens taking £1,012,749/£3,487,379
1998’s As Good as It Gets opened £909,459/£1,787,324 254 screens, taking £9,540,214/£18,749,006
- Eleanor the Great – Sony Pictures
£16,460 #46 from 150 screens
Eleanor the Great, directed by Scarlett Johansson (directorial debut), had its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, receiving mixed reviews.
Scarlett Johansson first film acting role was in Rob Reiner’s 1994 film North which was a critical and BO failure ending his run of seen success films; 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap; 1985’s The Sure Thing; 1986’s Stand By Me; 1987’s The Princess Bride; 1989’s When Harry Met Sally; 1990’s Misery and 1992’s A Few Good Men.
After 1994’s North Rob Reiner couldn’t repeat the success he had with the films he directed over the next 31 years with most of the films he directed made by his production company Castle Rock including 1995’s The American President, 1996’s Ghosts of Mississippi; 1999’s The Story of Us; 2005’s Rumour Has It, 2007’s The Bucket List and moat recently Spinal Tap II: The End Continues this year.
When Legends Take Their Final Bow
There’s something uniquely sad about watching a legendary filmmaker reach the end of an extraordinary career not with a triumph, but with a shrug. Earlier this year, Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights came and went with little impact — and it may well stand as the final chapter for a director who gave us Rain Man, Good Morning, Vietnam and Bugsy. Likewise, James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay now arrives in a marketplace that no longer seems built for the kind of adult, humanist storytelling he once defined.
It’s a familiar, and quietly heartbreaking pattern. Warren Beatty, who directed Heaven Can Wait, Reds and Bugsy, closed out his directing career with Rules Don’t Apply in 2016 — a deeply personal film that struggled to connect with audiences. And Rob Reiner, one of the defining voices of 1980s and early ’90s American cinema — This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, A Few Good Men — saw his long career end not with a return to form, but with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, a coda that inevitably carried more nostalgia than necessity.
None of this erases the greatness that came before. These are filmmakers many of us grew up with — whose films we’ve watched, rewatched, quoted, and carried with us for decades. But it does underline how brutal the modern industry can be, particularly to voices shaped in an era when adult audiences were courted rather than sidelined.
Sometimes a final film isn’t a victory lap.
Sometimes it’s simply a reminder of how much cinema — and the business around it — has changed.
We live in a fragmented, algorithm-driven, content-saturated world. But when we need to remember what it felt like to fall in love, to stand up for something, to lose a friend, or simply to feel understood, we don’t crawl through the desert toward a mirage. We go back to the films that once made us feel less alone.
And perhaps that’s why Steven Spielberg now feels like the last standard-bearer of that generation. Slightly younger than Brooks, Reiner, Levinson and Beatty, he’s somehow still standing — still working, still curious, still making films that believe cinema can mean something beyond the opening weekend. With Disclosure Day set to arrive next summer and its trailer dropping yesterday, Spielberg isn’t chasing relevance or algorithms; he’s simply continuing a conversation with audiences he’s been speaking to for half a century.
When his films land, they don’t arrive as “content.” They arrive as events with emotional afterlife — the kind you return to when you want to remember how it felt to be moved, scared, hopeful, or understood. In an era obsessed with what’s next, Spielberg remains quietly focused on what lasts. And that, more than any box office total, may be the rarest thing left in modern cinema.
Also released
Also quietly making noise this weekend were a slate of Christmas re-releases — films that will be freely available on terrestrial television throughout the festive period, and in most cases are already sitting on multiple streaming platforms. And yet, audiences still chose to pay to see them in cinemas.
Titles including Home Alone, Home Alone 2, The Polar Express (20th Anniversary 4K Restoration), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (25th Anniversary 4K Restoration) and Arthur Christmas all returned to the big screen on limited schedules — often just one or two shows per day — and still attracted audiences.
Which rather neatly dismantles one of the industry’s most persistent arguments: that streaming availability somehow kills theatrical interest. These films aren’t just available at home — they’re traditionally watched at home, for free, every December. And yet the cinema experience still won.
What this demonstrates, once again, is that availability isn’t the problem. If audiences want to see something on the big screen, they will go — even when it’s already sitting in their living room. The appeal is ritual, nostalgia, scale, and communal viewing, not exclusivity.
That said, it remains unclear how much of this re-release attendance is driven by subscription cinema members, for whom a nostalgic revisit comes at little or no additional cost. But even allowing for that, the takeaway is unmistakable: theatrical demand still exists — it just has to be invited properly.
Home Alone (Re: 2018) £181,299 #10 440 screens
The Polar Express (20th Anniversary 4K Restoration) £125,709 #12 220 screens
How The Grinch Stole Christmas (25th Anniversary 4K Restoration) £89,900 #13 252 screens
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (Re: 2018) £88,339 #14 296 screens
Arthur Christmas (Re: 2021) £16,638 #45 71 screens
With Avatar Fire and Ash cannibalizing the BO this weekend and all of last weeks new releasing losing most of their screens it will mean more Christmas re-releases will climb into the top 10.
———-
Year-to-date, has dropped to 1% ahead of 2024
The weekend’s top 10 box office took £7,628,065, down 42.1% from last weekend’s £13,162,362: 985,538 admissions, down 39.9% from 1,639,628 admissions.
The 40th biggest weekend of the last 52 weeks between 07 February 2025 #1 Dog Man £3,252,536 (41.77%) and 19 September 2025 #1 Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale £2,267,004 (30.58%)
181st biggest since cinemas reopened out of 265 weeks between 22 April 2022 #1 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 £1,637,442 (21.38%) and 20 August 2021 #1 Free Guy £2,267,660 (30.29%)
939th biggest top 10 of the last 24 years (out of 1,236) between 02 June 2006 #1 X-Men: The Last Stand £2,310,683 (30.29%) and 11 November 2005 #1 In Her Shoes £1,337,176 (17.53%) and 1,121st biggest inflated between 25 September 2015 #1 Everest £1,996,439 (28.64%) and 04 April 2003 #1 The Recruit £770,014 (18.03%)
The top 3 took £5,640,339 (73.9%) of the top 10; Zootropolis 2 36.28% (£2,767,509); Wicked: For Good 24.34% (£1,856,430); Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 13.32% (£1,016,400)
559th biggest percentage share #1 (36.28%) between 16 May 2003 #1 X-Men 2 £2,115,011 (36.28%) and 06 May 2005 #1 Kingdom of Heaven £2,530,445 (36.20%)
924th biggest admissions (357,559) between 12 April 2024 #1 Back To Black £2,772,698 (358,230) and 11 November 2011 #1 Immortals £2,166,432 (357,497)
Down 32.46% from 2024; (£11,294,181); Kraven The Hunter (£686,806); Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim (£483,584); Queer (£293,041); Home Alone (Re: 2018) (£150,679); The Polar Express (20th Anniversary 4K Restoration) (£136,235); Elf (20th Anniversary) (£81,219); Love Actually (20th Anniversary) (£62,306); #1 Moana 2 £3,613,290 3rd week 48% drop 662 screens (31.99% of top 10).
Down 22.94% from 2023; (£13,378,556); Wonka (£8,904,750); Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure Of Foggy Mountain (£11,622); #1 Wonka £8,904,750 1st week 699 screens (66.56% of top 10)
Up 63.4% from 2022 (£4,557,646); The Nutcracker – ROH, London 2022 (£133,397); The Hours – Met Opera 2022 (£54,274); The Silent Twins (£33,599); #1 Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical £2,102,867 3rd week 17% drop 717 screens (46.14% of top 10)
Up 46.2% 2021 (£5,216,792); West Side Story (£1,297,786); Clifford The Big Red Dog (£1,293,354); Home Alone (Re) (£122,999); The Nutcracker – ROH, London 2021 (£89,705); Sword Art Online The Movie (£64,612); #1 West Side Story £1,297,786 1st week 678 screens (24.9% of top 10)
Up 1,365.24% 2020; £520,600); Little Mix: Lm5 – The Tour Film (£83,519); Superintelligence (£72,574); The Polar Express (Re: 2014) (£28,350); #1 Elf (Re: 2020) £98,157 2nd week 173 screens (18.85% of top 10)
Down 53.01% 2019; (£16,232,465); Jumanji: The Next Level (£9,464,661); Black Christmas (£283,507); The Nutcracker – Bolshoi Ballet 2019 (£187,697); #1 Jumanji: The Next Level 1st week £9,464,661 637 screens (58.3% of top 10)
Down 47.68% 2018: (£14,579,804); Aquaman (£5,230,285); Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (£2,279,995); Mortal Engines (£1,269,441); Free Solo (£387,402); La Traviata – Met Opera 2018 (£274,847); CBeebies Christmas Show: Thumbelina (£195,580); It’s a Wonderful Life (4K Restoration) (£114,865); #1 Aquaman £5,230,285 1st week 604 screens (35.8% of top 10)
Down 75.91% 2017: (£31,690,287); Star Wars: The Last Jedi (£28,010,841); It’s a Wonderful Life (Re: 2017) (£61,102); #1 Star Wars: The Last Jedi £28,010,841 1st week 723 screens (88.4% of top 10)
Up 23.62% 2015; (£5,906,053); Grandma (£35,916); By the Sea (£24,770); When Harry Met Sally (Re: 2015) (£4,975); #1 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 £1,286,244 4th week 513 screens 43% drop (21.7% of top 10)
Down 55.38% 2014: (£17,095,720); The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (£9,753,642); Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (£395,454); Merchants of Doubt (£323); #1 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies £9,753,642 1st week 594 screens (57.1% of top 10)
Down 54.43% 2013: (£16,740,270); The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (£9,325,626); Cinema Paradiso (Re: 2013) (£12,374); #1 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug £9,325,626 1st week 580 screens (55.7% of top 10)
Down 53.86% 2012: (£16,530,942); The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (£11,601,538); Tinker Bell and the Secret of the Wings 3D (£528,820); Smashed (£1,991); Home Alone (Re: 2012) (£1,716); Neil Young Journeys (£423); Code Name: Geronimo (£388); #1 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey £11,601,538 1st week 1st #1 598 screens (70.2% of top 10)
Up 2.1% 2011; (£7,474,721); Puss in Boots (£1,975,758); New Year’s Eve (£1,285,552); A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (£183,798); Another Earth (£90,950); #1 Puss in Boots £1,975,758 1st week 1st #1 510 screens (26.4% of top 10)
Down 4.8% 2010: (£8,015,202); Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (£2,460,118); The Tourist (£1,341,143); Somewhere (£125,581); The Shop Around the Corner (Re) (£8,038); #1 Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader £2,460,118 1st week 536 screens (30.6% of top 10)
Up 11.74% 2009; (£6,826,766); Where The Wild Things Are (£883,990); Carriers (£69,224); The Stepfather (£40,056); The Red Shoes (re) (£13,336); #1 A Christmas Carol £1,544,226 6th week 2nd #1 week 1 and week 5 7% drop 434 screens (22.6% of top 10)
Down 12.75% 2008; (£8,742,920); The Day the Earth Stood Still (£2,752,132); Inkheart (£700,146); Dean Spanley (£42,898); White Christmas (re) (£7,518); #1 The Day the Earth Stood Still £2,752,132 1st week 465 screens (31.5% of top 10)
Down 24.70% 2007: (£10,130,524); Enchanted (£2,547,975); Bee Movie (£2,281,393); Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (£459,734); We Own the Night (£441,416); It’s a Wonderful Life (RE) (£15,025); Youth Without Youth (£8,174); #1 The Golden Compass £3,002,951 2nd week 59% drop 509 screens (29.6% of top 10)
Down 20.66% 2006; (£12,568,238); Happy Feet (£3,689,166); The Holiday (£2,826,520); The Covenant (£181,365); The Nativity Story (£78,553); Bugsy Malone (re) (£231); #1 Happy Feet £3,689,166 1st week 445 screens (29.3% of top 10)
Down 42.6% 2005: (£13,287,703); The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (£8,884,111); March of the Penguins (£183,798); #1 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 1st week £8,884,111 498 screens (66.9% of top 10)
Down 44.67% 2005: (£13,786,105); King Kong (£6,944,740); The Family Stone (£247,515); Lassie (£132,926); #1 King Kong £6,944,740 1st week 481 screens (50.4% of top 10)
Down 26.05% 2004; (£10,315,744); Blade: Trinity (£2,633,626); The Polar Express (expansion) (£2,136,898); Phantom of the Opera (£1,219,310); Garden State (£128,366); #1 Blade: Trinity £2,633,626 1st 329 screens (25.5% of top 10)
Up 4.65% 2003 (£7,288,995); The Fighting Temptations (£151,994); Touching the Void (£115,332); Dead End (£52,130); Lord of the Rings: The 2 Towers (Sp. Ed) (£42,378); #1 Love Actually £2,273,706 4th week 486 screens 29% drop (31.2% of top 10)
Up 21.53% from 2002: (£6,276,464); Like Mike £246,169; Dirty Pretty Things £141,865; #1 Die Another Day £2,220,351 4th week 463 screens 35% drop (35.38% of top 10)
Up 45.31% from 2001 (£5,249,630); The Deep End £68,988; #1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone £2,391,251 5th weekend 29% drop 537 screens (45.55% of top 10)
2024 Next week: (£11,137,093); Mufasa: The Lion King (£4,415,961); London 2024 (Ballet) Ivanov/Wright The Nutcracker – ROH (£227,083); It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) (£140,144); #1 Mufasa: The Lion King £4,415,961 1st week (39.65% of top 10).
November UK BO
November BO was 33% down from 2024, taking £85m down from £127.5m last year; year-to-date is £965m, 2% ahead of 2024 and 1% behind 2023.
November admissions were 9.42m and 2025 admissions 110.91m to then end of November, this is slightly down from the last two years n 2023, but still almost 50m down from 2019.
December admissions need to be about 14.6m (similar to December 2024 admissions) o top 2024 admissions with a BO of £115m. Avatar: Fire and Ash will do the heavy lifting as it will take the bulk of its BO from premium formats IMAX/PLF/3D/4DX/ScreenX/Dolby rather than 2D.
In 2022 Avatar: The Way Of Water took £44,971,330 with about 6m admissions.
Its unlikely Avatar: Fire and Ash will take as much over its opening three weeks and Zootropolis 2 will probably take about £20m of its BO in December adding about 2.6m admissions with Wicked taking about £10m in December and 1.3m admissions. Its hard to see how this will add up to over 14.6m admissions.
After BO was over 20% more than last year in the summer, to squeeze past last year’s admissions must be seen as a disappointment, as admissions will have increased by less than 10m since 2022 and over 50m less than 2019.
In October 2021, the industry made huge claims after the huge opening of No Time To Die that it was the start of the second golden age of cinema, and has continued to do so over the years since, saying admissions could finally top 200m within a decade. How is this possibly going to happen with admissions still a long way from getting back to 2019 levels?
There might be some huge films in 2026, but there were similar huge films over the years since COVID., but these massive films can’t do it on their own, which the industry fails to understand. As seen by last weekend, it’s not about one massive film, its about several films that play to different demographics play across them like Zootropolis 2, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 and Wicked: For Good and what should also be the case after Christmas with the four wide releases opening on Boxing Day playing to different audiences than Avatar: Fire and Ash.
While Wicked: For Good had the biggest opening since Barbie (£17.8m), it has dropped off much more heavily over its following weeks than last year’s Wicked. While it might currently be tracking 6% more than Wicked its has taken much less than Wicked over the last two weeks and is unlikely top A Minecraft Movie (£56.9m) after it opened it was expected to take £70m, but as with Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (£46.4m) earlier this year its failed to get close to its expected BO, this of course has nothing to do with Netflix or shorter theatrical windows as both will have 45-50 day windows.
After Wicked: For Good and Zootropolis 2 have come short of last years Wicked and Moana 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash needs to take much more than 2023’s Avatar: The Way of Water (opened £11,187,562 taking £76,725,041) but interest and buzz for the third film feels much less than the build up towards the last film and is surely likely to take closer to £60m.
The slack from Avatar: Fire and Ash will come from The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants, The Housemaid, Anaconda and Marty Supreme, four films that play to demographics not interested in seeing another Smurfs film across the two lucrative weeks of Christmas.
US Box Office
- Zootopia 2 – Disney
Dropped 40% in its third weekend, $25.88m and $258.55m
100th biggest third weekend between Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Lincoln (close to Moana 2, The Incredibles, Despicable Me 2 and The Princess and the Frog).
EntTelligence said the average ticket price was $14.42; the average PLF ticket was $18.
2016’s Zootopia dropped 27.6% $37.16m and $200.92m of $341.3m/$454.1m and $1.025bn/$1.4bn worldwide
2016’s Moana dropped 34.4% $18.53m and $144.7m of $248.75m and $643.33m worldwide
2024’s Moans 2 dropped 48.3% $26.49m and $337.39m of $460.4m and $1.059bn WW
Social media for Zootopia 2 across X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube before opening was 518m, above Kung Fu Panda 4‘s 353mn, but below Minions: Rise of Gru ‘s 668m.
Took $56.6m worldwide from IMAX; $10.9m US and $45.7m international, including $34m from China.
Took $131.1m from 51 territories $877.7m total and $1.137bn worldwide; China $502.4m; France $36.4m; S. Korea $35m; Japan $27.7m; Mexico $24.9m; Germany $22.6m; UK $20.6m; Taiwan $15.1m; Italy $14.8m; Brazil $11.6m; Australia $11.3m; Spain $10.7m.
Last year, Moana 2 took $57.2m (down 44%) $379.5m total and $717m worldwide; France $40.5m; UK $33.5m; Germany $24.8m; Mexico $23.5m; Brazil $21.1m; Australia $18.7m; S. Korea $17.9m; Italy $17.5m; Spain $13.7m; China $13.2m; Japan $12.3m; $15m worldwide from IMAX.
Zootopia 2 global BO has been inflated by $502m from China. The first film was a massive hit in China, taking $236.1m, so it was always expected that the sequel would perform stronger 9 years later.
- Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 – Universal Pictures
Dropped 70% $19.39m in its second weekend, taking $95.37m
Dropped slightly less than 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, but that opened over Halloween weekend, and the weekend after Halloween often sees a big drop for horrors.
508th biggest second weekend between Brother Bear and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (close to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, 300: Rise of an Empire and Tron: Legacy)
2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s dropped 76.2% $19m and $113.2m of $137.27m and $291.68m worldwide
Despite Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s front-loaded BO, Universal and Blumhouse will surely be announcing a third film for release in 2028. The budget for the second film was a third more than the first, so the budget for a third film will likely be about $70m, but will likely suffer from the law of diminishing returns, with lower BO from the second film.
Social media for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X was at a 843m 72% more than the first Freddy’s and higher than Final Destination: Bloodlines (353.3m), Black Phone 2 (335.4m) and 28 Years Later (225.5m; stars Josh Hutcherson at 13.8m; Matthew Lillard at 5.4m; Elizabeth Lail 1.7m.
Trailers for the film ahead of opening were viewed over 400m times worldwide. The first teaser was shown at CinemaCon in April and released online soon after. The trailer was released in July, and a final trailer was released in November.
Took $19.1m internationally from 76 territories, $78.3m total, and $173.8m worldwide; Mexico $11.7m; UK $7m; Brazil $5.2m; Spain $4.6m; Australia $4.4m; Germany $3.1m; Poland $3m; France $3m; Italy $3m; Peru $2.6m
- Wicked: For Good – Universal Pictures
Down 51% $8.54m in its fourth weekend and $312.14m
456th biggest fourth weekend between Rush Hour 3 and Big Momma’s House (close to Dreamgirls, Maid in Manhattan, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit).
EntTelligence said the average ticket price was $14.42; the average PLF ticket was $18 last year. EntTelligence said the average price of Wicked is $14.36, and PLF screens $17.72.
Despite opening 30% more than Wicked three weeks ago, it’s been far more front-loaded and is now *5 down from Wicked’s BO, so it’s likely to struggle to get to $350m. Most analysts expected Wicked: For Good to perform stronger than Wicked, with another 50%+ drop expected in its fourth weekend and the same again in its fifth weekend.
Wicked saw an increase after Christmas last year, but the marketplace is far more crowded this year with 5 other wide releases opening close to Avatar: Fire and Ash.
2024’s Wicked dropped 38% $22.64m and $359.16m of $474.56 m (41.23m admissions); $284.29m (24.7m admissions) internationally and $758.85m (65.9m admissions) worldwide.
105th biggest between Iron Man 2 and Star Wars Ep. II: Attack of the Clones; 348th biggest inflated between How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and Twins; 5th biggest 2025 between Jurassic World Rebirth and Sinners; 6th biggest musical between Frozen and The Little Mermaid; 16th biggest Universal Pictures between Oppenheimer and Jaws.
The two Wicked films should have been a cultural phenomenon due to the massive fanbase. The musical is the second-highest-grossing musical on Broadway after The Lion King, which took $1.25bn and $5bn worldwide, and over 65 million have seen the stage show. Add in the massive global fanbase of Ariana Grande, and you’re talking Taylor Swift numbers.
Fourth weekends
2014’s Into the Woods dropped 29.1% $6.77m and $114.52m of $128m and $212.9m WW
2012’s Les Misérables dropped 22.3% $7.49m and $130.05m of $149.26m and $442.75m WW.
Comparison films include.
2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful dropped 45.7% $11.7m and $198.37m of $234.91m/$311.48m and $493.31m/$654.1m WW
2017’s Beauty and the Beast dropped 47.9% $23.65m and $430.94m of $504.01m and $1.263bn worldwide
2014’s Maleficent dropped 30.2% $12.91m and $185.87m of $241.41m/$318.53m and $758.41m/$1bn
2023’s Barbie dropped 36.2% $33.83m and $526.44m of $636.23m and $1.446bn worldwide
Jon Chu previously directed.
2018’s Crazy Rich Asians dropped 40.1% $13.14m and $135.77m of $174.83m and $239.34m worldwide
Wicked 2 social media was 1.33bn across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube; Ariana Grande 510m driving over 570m views on Instagram, plus Cynthia Erivo at 5.4m, Jonathan Bailey at 5.7m, Jeff Goldblum at 5.2m and Michelle Yeoh at 3.1m, Bowen Yang at 1.1m and director Jon M. Chu at 975k.
Social media for Wicked: For Good is more than a third higher than Wicked 964.3m TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram, and Ariana Grande has over 466.7m social media followers, including 373m on Instagram.
Took $7.7m from 78 territories, total $155.8m and $468.4m worldwide; UK $53.6m; Australia $17.9m; Germany $9m; S. Korea $6.4m; Mexico $6.3m; Holland $5.1m; Philippines $5.1m; Spain $4.6m; France $4.3m.
297th biggest worldwide between Godzilla vs. Kong and Star Trek Into Darkness; 13th biggest 2025 between The Conjuring: Last Rites and Captain America: Brave New World; 38th biggest Universal Pictures between Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Lucy.
Wicked took in comparison last year $21.5m (39% drop) from 81 territories $166m total and $525.3m worldwide; UK $55.2m; Australia $20.1m; S. Korea $12m; Mexico $9m; Spain $5.2m; Germany $4.9m; Brazil $4m; Italy $3.5m; Holland $3.4m; France $3.1m; Global IMAX $19.4m.
- Ella McCay – 20th Century Studios
Opened $2.02m; received poor reviews (24% Rotton Tomatoes) and B- CinemaScore
Took $200k from Thursday previews
Another disappointing opening for director James L Brooks, still trying to make the same films he made over 30 years ago, but there hasn’t been a cinema audience for over the last 20 years.
As 20th Century Fox/Studios have had so much success from The Simpsons over the last 36 years, and they have been wanting a Simpsons Movie sequel for over a decade, making Ella McCay was surely part of the deal to make The Simpsons Movie 2. So, Disney had no interest in making and releasing the film, doing the least they could, market and release the film and were willing to write off a $35m budget as The Simpsons Movie 2 will take $1bn in 2027. The Simpsons has generated in merchandise over $12bn since 1989.
1983’s Terms of Endearment opened $3.49m/$12.78m taking $108.42m/$196.2m
1987’s Broadcast News opened $5.44m/$16.1m taking $51.24m/$150.9m
1994’s I’ll Do Anything opened $4.7m/$13.3m, taking $10.4m/$29.4m
1997’s As Good as It Gets opened $12.6m/$31.6m taking $148.4m/$372.4m and $314.2m/$787.8m WW
2004’s Spanglish opened $8.81m/$16.4m taking $42.72m/$79.2m and $55.47m/$102.9m worldwide
2010’s How Do You Know opened $7.48m/$10.9m taking $30.21m/$44.1m and $48.7m/$70.9m WW
Now aged 86 Ella McCay will likely be the last film he will direct, after directing films as Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as It Gets as well as producing so many others including Big, The War of the Roses and Jerry Maguire, it’s sad to end with a film like Ella McCay, but this often sadly happens also with Rob Reiner, Clint Eastwood and Warren Beatty, directors who have had lengthy directing many massive hits for studios.
Opened $282,805 internationally from 3 territories
- Hamnet – Focus Features
Down 38%, adding 5 screens in its third weekend, $1.43m and $6.97m
Hamnet has been developing strong buzz since having its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, also screened at Toronto and London Film Festivals, winning the People’s Choice Award and the Audience Award. Will expand over the coming weeks; received widespread critical acclaim and is being positioned in a similar way as Shakespeare in Love was in December 1998 for Golden Globes, Oscars and BAFTA over the coming months for it to play strongly over the coming weeks.
Hamnet received 6 Golden Globe nominations, including Best Drama Film, Best Director Drama, Best Actor Drama and Best Screenplay Drama, and in January/February will be getting similar BAFTA and Oscar nominations.
1998’s Shakespeare in Love took 10 weeks to go wide ($7.88m), taking $100.31m and $289.31m worldwide and won 7 of its 13 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor.
Chloé Zhao previously directed the Oscar-winning 2020’s Nomadland and 2021’s Eternals.
27 years ago, Shakespeare In Love took $100m in the US ($230m inflated) and $289m ($660m inflated) worldwide and received 13 Oscar nominations. Hamnet could receive a similar number of nominations, but it will take less than half of Shakespeare in Love’s BO.
About 4m copies of the book have been sold worldwide, with over 1.5m from the UK; the story is a deeply British literary mythologising of the nation’s greatest writer. The book won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and dominated the British literary press. Maggie O’Farrell is a beloved author in the UK, so Hamnet will be far more successful when it opens in the UK in January and receives many BAFTA award nominations, becoming the must-see award nomination like The King’s Speech and The Darkest Hour.
UK Box Office Top 10
Box Office Preview
Avatar: Fire And Ash, sequel to 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and the third instalment in the film series, currently planned as a five-part series, with Avatar 5 dated for 2031.
Critical reaction has been the predictable looks great but struggles with the plot, and this time a plot that feels so similar to previous instalments of 1990s Dances with Wolves and 1992’s Ferngully.
The first teaser trailer was released with The Fantastic Four: The First Steps in July. In September and October 2025, Avatar: The Way of Water was released in cinemas with exclusive clips from Avatar: Fire and Ash in the end credits.
The 8 James Cameron-directed films have taken over £380m at the UK BO and inflation-inflated total of £600m+. The only film that failed to find an audience in the UK was 1989’s The Abyss, opening for £204,075 (after an exclusive platform at Odeon Leicester Square taking £1,348,000 (£5,065,972 inflated)
The first trailer was seen over 160m times in its first 24 hours, compared to the Avatar: The Way of Water teaser trailer, which was attached to Doctor Strange 2 in May and released online on May 9th, viewed 148.5m times in its first 24 hours (23m in China).
Had the world premiere in Los Angeles on December 1st and UK premiere on December 11th, the review embargo ended December 16th, but everyone knows what the plot is: humans want something Navi’s have, big battle and the Navi’s win. James Cameron’s film plots aren’t complicated, as they’re all about never-before-seen visuals.
In 2009, 20th Century Fox feared Avatar would underperform, so they released Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel the following week. Avatar opened #1 in week 1 (£8,509,050, only 21% from 2D), lost #1 in its second weekend to The Squeakquel (playing to a younger family audience) while Avatar dropped 55%, taking £3,828,123. Few would have imagined that the Avatar would take £4m+ for the next 8 weeks, returning to #1 for 8 of the next 9 weeks and go on to take £93,442,625 (£140m inflated).
Avatar opened in 9 IMAX cinemas in 2009 (Birmingham IMAX Millennium Point, National Media Museum IMAX Bradford, Cardiff, Gateshead Metrocentre, Glasgow Science Centre, ODEON Greenwich, BFI London IMAX, Manchester The Printworks and ODEON Wimbledon). IMAX took 7% of the UK BO of Avatar (more than it took from 2D 300 screens). Avatar broke advance booking records at the BFI IMAX, taking £607,000, selling 47,487 tickets with an average ticket price of £12.90, selling 99% capacity; Avatar: The Way of Water opened in 54 and Avatar: Fire And Ash will open in more.
2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water opened £11,187,562 taking £76,725,041; £3.5m (31.3%) Friday (4th biggest Friday in 2022); £4.2m Saturday and £3.8m Sunday; 3D took 45.3% (£5,060,733) from 557 cinemas (£9,085 average); IMAX/3D 12% (£1,346,849) from 54 screens (£25k average) and 2D took 42.7% (£4,773,500) £5,584 average.
2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water was #1 for 7 weeks (through to the end of January) as rivals kept their distance from it after the huge success of the first film, with Puss In Boots: The Last Wish opening in February. 15 for 13 weeks. Stayed in the top 5 for 10 weeks, the top 10 for 12 weeks and the top 15 for 13 weeks.
Avatar: Fire And Ash has much more immediate competition with The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants, Anaconda and The Housemaid opening the week after, followed by Song Sung Blue.
As with the previous two films, Avatar: Fire And Ash will take 80%+ from 3D, IMAX, PLF, ScreenX, 4DX, Dolby and other premium cinema, with many of those cinemas £18+ only needing to sell 500k tickets to open with £9m+. Presales look good for IMAX/PLF/3D, but for 2D are soft.
While Avatar had 99% capacity at BFI IMAX, it had sold out a couple of shows by Wednesday.
Avatar: Fire And Ash shouldn’t after either Zootropolis 2 or Wicked: For Good as playing to different audiences but the loss of premium screens will likely see both drop about 50%; Avatar: Fire And Ash will like to take 85% of the weekends BO, that said with The Spongebob Movie having previews Sat/Sun it won’t be the complete weekend BO.
All other films, as always, when a tentpole opens, will drop heavily
Coming Soon
- Song Sung Blue – Universal Pictures
Biographical musical drama based on the 2008 documentary starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Mustafa Shakir, Fisher Stevens, and Jim Belushi and written and directed by Craig Brewer.
Had its premiere at the AFI Film Festival, receiving positive reviews (79% Rotten Tomatoes).
Song Sung Blue, the combination of Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson and Neil Diamond in a feel-good musical, feels like the perfect film to see at the start of the year, a film audiences can get behind, being a people’s champion as The Greatest Showman was 8 years ago.
Escapism & Joy: Like The Greatest Showman, “Song Sung Blue” (with that title and creative team) promises pure, music-driven, emotional uplift. It’s designed not as a gritty drama, but as a celebration.
Music as the Engine: Neil Diamond’s catalogue is full of anthemic, sing-along classics (“Sweet Caroline,” “Hello Again,” “America”). This isn’t a subtle soundtrack; it’s a communal experience, meant for audience toes to tap and hearts to swell—exactly the Showman formula.
Star Power with Charisma: Hugh Jackman is the modern P.T. Barnum of musical cinema. His innate likability and proven song-and-dance chops (Les Mis, The Greatest Showman) provide instant trust and spectacle. Kate Hudson brings warmth and relatable charm.
Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline is the definitive song of collective celebration. It’s played in football, rugby, cricket, and the Olympics. The moment the “Bah, bah, bah!” chorus hits, everyone—regardless of age or team—sings along, arms around each other. It’s a pure, unfiltered moment of national joy. Also played at weddings, pubs at closing time, and parties. It has completely shed its American origins and been adopted as a UK communal property.
